VINCE CABLE says the region faces a long hard slog to economic recovery, after figures revealed most job losses were in the private sector.

Interviewed by The Northern Echo, the Business Secretary said the North-East was the English region that had struggled most after the economic crash.

He said there were “pluses and minuses” in every region, pointing to the reopening of Redcar steelworks and expansion of the Lotte Chemical plant, at Wilton, as examples of good news.

He confirmed a £1.65m Government award to car parts maker Nifco, in Stockton, to help the company move into the market for electric vehicle batteries.

The £11m project, to equip a new factory, is expected to create 128 jobs and safeguard 158.

Dr Cable acknowledged recent statistics showing private- sector redundancies were outstripping the loss of public-sector posts were “not good”, and said: “They illustrate the scale of the problem we have.

“There are pluses and minuses all over the place, but the idea of the North lagging behind the South and South- East, that has happened for a very long period of time and it is not going to be easy to turn that around.”

The Northern Echo revealed that the North-East shed 7,000 private-sector jobs in only three months last year, with 4,000 lost because of public sector spending cuts.

In Yorkshire, 40,000 privatesector and 8,000 publicsector jobs were lost in the third quarter of last year.

Dr Cable praised local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in Teesside and North Yorkshire, the business-led groups set up to replace regional development agencies.

He said they had started with no money and no blueprint, but added: “Some of them are generating a real sense of energy – we are getting areas of specialism.

“I was recently talking to people from the North Yorkshire LEP, who are trying to develop activities around rural industry, for example.”

Dr Cable once described the scrapping of the development agencies as Maoist and chaotic, but said yesterday: “I am much more positive about it than when I made that comment.”

He also pointed to the big benefits for exporters from a big devaluation of the pound.

Dr Cable said: “We tend not to promote that as Government policy, but it is one of the consequences of the last government, and this government’s approach, overall.

“We have had a big competitive kick from a more competitive exchange rate.”