MPs are to put the spotlight on former coalfield communities blighted by crime and unemployment.

A Government select committee is to begin an inquiry into policy aimed at regenerating such communities scattered throughout the North-East.

The committee, which shadows the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), aims to look at a number of issues, such as policies to create employment, the reclamation and regeneration of former mining areas, and links with health, welfare and education.

A key aim will be to measure progress made against the Action Plan for the Coalfields, published five years ago by the Government.

Millions of pounds worth of Government and European cash has been spent on attempts to breathe new life into former pit towns and villages since a wave of colliery closures in the 1980s and 1990s, but problems caused by deprivation still remain.

Last year, a survey by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust found that almost half of all young people living in North-East coalfield communities wanted to move away.

One of the MPs sitting on the committee is Easington MP John Cummings, whose constituency was identified in the 2001 census as having among the highest levels of ill health in the country.

A report by the TUC also found that one in three people in the area had problems with basic skills, such as reading and writing.

Written evidence in the first instance is being invited by September 26.

* Anyone interested is asked to write to ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee, Committee Office, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA.