GOVERNMENT offices in the North-East and Yorkshire are to be abolished, it was announced yesterday.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said the “arbitrary”

division of the country into regions was not “efficient, effective or popular”.

But critics of the move say the Government’s continued dismantling of the regional infrastructure will deprive the region of a voice and leave it behind in economic development and jobs.

The Government Office for the North-East, in Newcastle, is staffed by up to 200 people while hundreds more work at the office for Yorkshire and Humber, in Leeds.

The civil servants work as the “eyes and the ears” of Government and oversee a range of areas, such as child protection and emergency management in extreme weather, as well as local government.

Mr Pickles said they were not voices for the regions in Whitehall but “agents of Whitehall to intervene and interfere in localities”.

He said: “I do not believe the arbitrary government regions to be a tier of administration that is efficient, effective or popular.

“Citizens across England identify with their county, their city, their town, their borough and their neighbourhood.

“The case for elected regional government was overwhelmingly rejected by the people in the 2004 North-East referendum.”

The Government has already announced the abolition of the Regional Spatial Strategies, the Regional Assemblies and is proposing to axe the Regional Development Agencies One North East and Yorkshire Forward.

Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods, who is Labour’s Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, said: “I am concerned that the decision to abolish Regional Development Agencies made a few days ago leaves English regions without any way of co-ordinating economic development, major infrastructure projects and the effective co-ordination of public services for local people.

“It is a decision being made under the guise of localism, but it will see a huge centralisation of power into Whitehall ministries.”

She added: “Without Government Office North East and One North East business in our region will lose a vital source of information, funding and support.

The Government office was able to stand up for our region in Government and now we will lose that voice.”

A spokesman at the Department for Communities and Local Government said issues such as the redeployment of staff still had to be resolved.

Final decisions on the closures will be made during the spending review in the autumn.