When it launched its economic strategy for 2006-2016, One NorthEast, the regional development agency, gave a clear target for closing the gap between its gross value added (GVA) and that of the UK average.

The target, it said, was to raise the region’s GVA per head from 80 to 90 per cent of the UK average by 2016. This increase, it said, would require “a significant step change in economic performance”, needing both an increase in the productivity of those in work and the participation rate – the proportion of the region’s residents in employment.