IN the wake of the latest bad news on the North-East jobs front - at GSK in Barnard Castle and at Sanyo in Newton Aycliffe - we called on the Government to show real commitment to the region.

Our editorial comment a week ago concluded: "That means real money and real investment and real on-the-ground involvement... it means moving Government departments out of the over-heated South, it means giving the region its head to develop its own joined-up strategy to solve its own very real problems."

Last night, we learned that the Labour Party is leaving its Millbank headquarters in London and moving to North Shields, where its call centre is already based.

While it is important to stress the need for the 150 staff directly employed at Millbank to be treated with care in terms of redundancy and relocation terms, the move to our region is a step in the right direction.

In the context of extensive job losses at the likes of Corus, GSK and Sanyo - with more on the horizon at other major North-East companies if rumours prove to be founded - it is a relatively small step.

But, hopefully it demonstrates that the Government recognises the growing perception that too much emphasis is placed on London and not enough on the regions.

Hopefully, it is a sign that the Government is looking in detail at its own internal operations to see what other steps might be taken towards redressing the imbalance between the North and the South of this country.

The North-East is in need of a great deal of creative thinking if jobs in places like Teesside, Barnard Castle and Aycliffe are to be replaced, and this is a welcome example.

In our appeal last week for real investment in our region, we repeated our call for a review of the Barnett Formula, which dictates how Government money is spent, and which, at present, discriminates against the North-East.

It is a formula designed to focus resources on real need. The real need is here - in the North-East.

A change in that mechanism for releasing investment would be a much bigger big step in the right direction for a Government which has conceded that it is "time to deliver".