A STUNNING image of Hadrian’s Wall recently helped our region to win a competition for £1m of free advertising space at Heathrow Airport.

When you look at the latest spending figures you could be forgiven for thinking that the fortification begun by the Romans in AD 122 was the last major infrastructure investment made in the North-East.

A report from IPPR North shows that £5,426 per head is spent to improve roads, railways, flood defences and faster broadband in London, compared to a measly £223 per head in the North-East.

We are bottom of the league table among all of the English regions when it comes to getting a share of public infrastructure cash.

I can reluctantly accept that London – as the nation’s capital and economic nerve centre – needs major spending on projects like Crossrail to keep its eight million people on the move.

But it is a scandal that we get about half the amount handed to the Midlands, South West or South East.

The Heathrow advertising hoarding will attempt to attract more visitors to North-East towns, beaches, moorlands and historic attractions - but do we have the infrastructure to cope with them?

The construction trade has had a torrid time since the downturn. It’s often said to be the first industry to suffer during an economic crisis and the last to benefit from recovery. Today’s front page story brings some welcome good news to the sector. But we must be given a fairer share of public money so local firms can build the roads, railways and public services that will help us to compete globally.

While I’m on the subject of infrastructure, the Culture Minister last week made a big noise about the fact that more than a million properties now have access to superfast broadband speeds, as a result of Government-backing.

Superfast broadband is defined by the EU as speeds of 24Mbps or above. The Government's ambition is to provide 95 per cent of the UK with those speeds or higher by 2017, with the rest – mainly in rural communities - having to make do with a minimum speed of 2Mbps.

By contrast, Finland plans to have speeds more than four times faster by next year, while South Korea wants its citizens equipped with 1Gbps connections by 2017.

I agree with the Federation of Small Businesses that the UK's broadband target is not ambitious enough when compared with other nations. The government should commit to a minimum of 10Mbps for all homes and businesses by 2018-19, or we risk being left in the slow lane.

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