THE plight of the jobless in the region's former coalfield communities is even worse than 20 years ago, a Labour MP warned today.

The government had barely scratched the surface of the appalling legacy of unemployment and lack of qualifications in areas decimated in the 1980s, Blaydon MP David Anderson said.

Mr Anderson used a Commons debate on low skills in Britain's industrial heartlands to reveal depressing new figures to illustrate the gap with most of the country.

And he warned that even the region's exciting new industries - such as 'clean coal' and electric cars - would fail to reach the long-term jobless without urgent action.

Mr Anderson is the new chairman of the all-party group on coalfield communities, which has helped produce a detailed report - entitled 'What a Waste' - on the chronic lack of skills of many people who live there.

It states that 54 per cent of adults are educated no higher than national vocational qualification (NVQ) level two - but the problem is much worse in Easington, County Durham (64 per cent) and in Sunderland (60 per cent).

Comparing adults with no formal qualifications, the British average is 13 per cent - but is higher in County Durham (14 per cent) and Gateshead (17 per cent).

Mr Anderson warned that the government's focus was on improving the skills of under-25s at NVQ levels two and three - which penalised older workers, with even less skills.

And he said: "In many ways, things are now worse for those people than they were even 20 years ago because we face a much more global marketplace.

"The only answer is to give people in such communities the skills they need to face those challenges.

"I realise that the government are focused on that, but I make no apology for saying that the people we are talking about are a special case, given the situation that they have faced for so long."

Mr Anderson also warned that many adults with low skills would not return to formal education in colleges, or schools. Arguing for mentors to reach them, he said: "It is a case of taking the mountain to Mohammed."

And, describing the North-East's new industries, he said: "We could well see people moving from one highly paid job to another - while the people who are not in work do not get into work."

In reply, the skills minister Kevin Brennan agreed to meet with the the all-party coalfields group and to study the report it had produced.

Mr Brennan said: "I agree that we need to invest in mentors to work with and encourage the sort of people whom he [Mr Anderson] mentioned, to provide them with a way out of the poverty trap."