LEADERS of the North-East's business community remain unconvinced of the need for the proposed directly-elected regional assembly, according to a survey of directors yesterday.

A poll by the North-East Region of the Institute of Directors (IoD) found 82 per cent of respondents were opposed to the assembly, a fact seized upon by the North-East Says No campaign as further evidence that the business community was overwhelmingly against the proposal.

However, Yes4TheNorthEast pointed out that only ten per cent of the Institute's 750 members in the region responded to the survey and dismissed the No camp's response as spin.

The survey was carried out during the past few weeks by the North-East IoD.

Chairman Bill McGawley said: "The results of our poll reveal our members remain unconvinced by the Government's plans for elected regional government for the North-East.

"The fact 90 per cent of our members chose not to register an opinion indicates a worrying lack of conviction on the issue."

North-East Says No campaign member Ian Dormer, director of Rosh Engineering, Newcastle, and a member of the IoD, said: "The overwhelm-ing majority of business people I talk to think the assembly is a bad idea and will lead to higher tax and more bureaucracy."

However, Yes4TheNorthEast director Ross Forbes said: "When you see through the No campaign spin, it's obvious that less than 70 IoD members actually said they were against an assembly, so it hardly counts as 'massive business opposition'."