INEQUALITY in Britain was highlighted by a Church of England report yesterday as the Government was urged to cut the gap between rich and poor.

The contrast between a porter taking home £131 for a 36-and-a-half-hour week, and a man paying £103,000 for two tickets to David Beckham's World Cup party, showed an unacceptable imbalance in society.

"You have got to say that something is not quite right," said the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

There is, of course, another unacceptable imbalance in Britain - the divide between the North of the country and the South.

The Government had an opportunity to make a significant contribution towards closing that gap by drawing up a national ports strategy that favoured the North over the over-heated South.

It would have been a strategy that not only paved the way for thousands of much-needed jobs in the North-East but eased road and rail congestion in the South.

It would have helped spread the country's wealth and tipped the balance.

But yesterday, a long-awaited ports policy review by the Government concluded that expansion of three southern ports would cater for deep-sea services for the next 14 years.

Teesport, along with ports on the Humber and in Scotland, should make do with being "feeder berths".

So, in the South, there will be more jobs and more wealth but more congestion too. In the North, there is just a sense of disappointment at an opportunity that is being missed.