A PUBLIC health expert has called for an increase in state benefits to combat deprivation in the North-East.

The call is made in an assessment of how income, education, employment and housing affect the health of people in County Durham and Tees Valley.

The author of Miserable Measure, Dr Mark Reilly, said he was shocked at statistics which showed that in terms of health County Durham and Tees Valley is almost five times as bad as in England.

Dr Mark Reilly, a specialist with County Durham and Tees Valley Public Health Network, said more resources needed to be targeted on the most deprived residents as part of efforts to improve health.

He said there was a need for a concerted effort to improve education prospects, job opportunities and to increase people's minimum incomes, including state benefits.

Dr Reilly acknowledged that much had been done in recent years to shift resources from rich to poor areas but argued that much more needed to be done.

He used the title to highlight the human misery caused by "not having sufficient means to live healthily", because statistics cannot convey the degradation of poverty and because measures taken to make society more equal had not gone far enough.

In his report Dr Reilly urged others to take action.

He wrote: "I urge you to shock some people who matter into action before placing this document on your shelf.

"I urge you even more to to address the policy implications to make things a bit better for people who somehow manage to exist on limited incomes."

Dr Reilly said he was also concerned at the disparities within local areas.

"I have been shocked again, not just by the gap between the local and national patterns of deprivation but also by the gulf between, say, Durham and Easington."

The report identifies Easington as an area with severe unemployment and health problems, as well as some parts of Middlesbrough.

But Dr Reilly said there were pockets of severe deprivation throughout the area.

Figures showed that County Durham and Tees Valley has more than three times as many council wards suffering serious deprivation than the average for England.