THE North-East continues to be in the slow lane when it comes to spending on transport, the region’s leading business organisation has said.

The North-East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) claimed figures from the Treasury show that almost four times as much money was being spent on transport per person in London (£783) than in the North-East (£206).

The NECC obtained the figure from a raft of data published yesterday by the Treasury, which detailed spending in a number of sectors, including transport, health, housing and the environment.

In 2007-8, £528m was spent on transport in the North- East, compared to £5.9bn in London. In Yorkshire and Humberside, the figure was £1.1bn.

Overall, £16bn was spent on transport in England.

The NECC said transport was a key issue for businesses in helping them to grow and create jobs, but this was not a message reaching Whitehall.

Ironically, given the apparent disparity in transport funding, the North-East received the second largest amount of any region when it came to overall public funding in 2007-8 per head of population (£8,156). London came highest (£9,005). The average across England was £7,426.

James Ramsbotham, NECC chief executive, said: “The amount of money spent on transport for our region is, quite frankly, shocking.

“We have witnessed decades of under-funding that has been a serious brake on an economy that has otherwise been performing outstandingly well until the global downturn.

“It is time for everyone, particularly the people who represent the North-East, to say that this simply is not good enough and that the imbalance must be redressed.”

Richard George, of the Campaign for Better Transport, which campaigns for sustainable, affordable and accessible transport, called for better analysis from the Government on where money needed to be spent.

He said: “The North-East will have its own particular problems. It is much more rural than somewhere like London and there are also greater distances to travel between its main population centres.

“We need some decent analysis on where the problems with transport infrastructure are and money needs to be spent accordingly.

“We also should not be pouring money into one area at the expense of another.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport claimed spending on transport in the North-East had increased by more than 30 per cent over the past five years.

She said: “ “We know that good local transport is vital, which is why the Government has invested significant sums in transport in the North- East.”

Some £300m is being spent on improvements to the Tyne and Wear Metro and multimillion improvements for the A19.

Other major transport schemes include a £381m road widening scheme on the A1 in North Yorkshire.