AT those exhausting party conferences, policies were unveiled and promises made about energy, transport, health, housing, education and every possible subject.

Except one. Sadly, one topic was almost entirely missing from the debate – how to ensure economic development in England’s regions keeps pace with the more prosperous South-East.

Yes, you can take our politicians out of London, but it’s still hard to lift their gaze to the different needs of the parts of England furthest from Big Ben’s chimes. On the economy, all the talk is of a nationwide GDP rise – telling us nothing about the North-East or Yorkshire – and the risk of a fresh house price explosion in the Home Counties.

It’s unsurprising, perhaps, that the Coalition parties left the regions off the conference agenda. After all, they have policies – albeit ones which are clearly inadequate.

There are local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and enterprise zones, although LEPs still lack powers and Government help.

Ministers threw out the Heseltine blueprint to dramatically devolve power and funding from Whitehall, although they will continue to claim they support it.

Instead, they are extending City Deals – almost certainly to Tees Valley next month – with small-scale handing over of decisionmaking to cash-starved local councils. And there is the regional growth fund, which was a dramatic cut on the sums available to tempt companies to invest – and shuts out smaller firms.

What should raise eyebrows is the fact that Labour had absolutely nothing to say about economic policy in its heartland regions. Its business spokesman is Chuka Umunna, a high-flying but London-focused MP, who says he wants an “active Government approach to underpin regional growth”. However, his conference speech gave no clues to future policy.

Ex-Transport Secretary Lord Adonis is carrying out a “growth review”, spending six months touring England before feeding his ideas into Labour’s manifesto. The review will almost certainly accept the status quo of LEPs, despite Whitehall alarm about the quality of many, while calling for them to be strengthened. However, when the region’s MPs gave their verdict on Lord Adonis’ dry run – his recent proposals for the North-East LEP – it was a massive raspberry.

In a Commons debate, they said tinkering with existing structures lacked “boldness”, would leave Whitehall’s iron grip intact and fail to spark economic revival.

There are still 19 months to go until election day, but Labour’s near-blank page is in stark contrast to the approach in the run-up to winning the 1997 election.

Then, Tony Blair’s party was committed to setting up powerful regional development agencies, leading to full devolution to elected assemblies. That may have been the wrong approach, and the assembly was rejected by North-East voters, but it displayed a confidence about delivering for England’s regions. Can Labour find similarly bold ideas in the coming months?

ERIC JOYCE achieved notoriety after going “berserk” in a Commons bar, punching poor, innocent Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson full in the face. Today, the former Labour MP will take part in Westminster’s Dog of the Year show with Irish terrier Brodie. Asked why he deserved to win, Brodie told the Kennel Club: “I’m incredibly well-behaved – unlike some people.”