A REPORT by MPs that said an elected North-East assembly would have lacked power and resources missed the point, a business group said.

The Forum of Private Businesses, which represents 25,000 small and medium-sized UK firms, said MPs had failed to understand that regional assemblies were "unwanted and unworkable".

The MPs, part of an all-party housing, planning, local government and the regions Parliamentary Select Committee, said Government legislation giving elected regional assemblies more clearly defined, stronger powers could be the key to their success.

Forum chairman Len Collinson said: "For most people in business, they would simply add complexity to a system of local government that made little sense in the first place, as well as establishing another layer of government, more politicians and bureaucrats, and extra costs.

"It is time for the Government to abandon the idea of regional assemblies, scrap the "talking shops" of the present appointed assemblies and look hard at the whole system of local government."

North-East voters rejected an elected assembly by more than four to one last year.