AN elected regional assembly in the North-East would have lacked any real power or resources, a damning report by MPs has claimed.

The report said a clearer case for assemblies showing value for money for taxpayers needed to be made, and that the plans, rejected by voters last year, "failed to fire the imagination" of the public.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a North-East assembly by nearly four to one in a referendum last November.

The report, by the housing, planning, local government and the regions parliamentary select committee, will come as a further embarrassment to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was forced to shelve referendums in Yorkshire and the North-West following the North-East vote.

The report said any future legislation to set up elected regional assemblies needed to be more ambitious than the draft Bill proposed last year.

Select committee chairman MP Andrew Bennett said: "The scope of the powers and responsibilities which the Government was prepared to give to assemblies was disappointing and would limit their effectiveness. Any initiative to promote effective elected regional assemblies has to have the commitment of all Government departments, which was clearly not the case."

MPs said that elected assemblies should have been given powers to decide on how money was spent on promoting economic development and skills, and on local transport improvements.

Professor John Tomaney, who represented the yes camp in the North-East referendum, said it was difficult to disagree with the broad thrust of the select committee report.

He said: "A stronger set of powers would have made the case for a yes vote easier to make. Nevertheless, the yes campaign maintain that we should have accepted the powers on offer and then built on them, but the people of the North-East did not share that view."