John Elliott, chairman of Bishop Auckland manufacturer Ebac Limited, gives his view on the regional assembly debate.

If the North-East Regional Assembly follows precedents it will be an expensive talking shop that achieves very little.

I know those who are seeking these jobs and their loyal supporters say that it will be different this time. But I don't believe them.

In a recent survey in Scotland, most thought the Scottish Assembly had made no improvements but had increased costs.

I'm not saying our current local government is perfect, but a regional assembly will make matters worse. A regional assembly will be more remote (from most of the region) and more party political.

One myth concerning the North-East is that every person, village and town is stereotypically North-Eastern and we are somehow different to the rest of England.

Maybe Darlington is more like Shrewsbury than Newcastle. Is Teesside the same as Tyneside? Have the people of Stockton as much in common with the people of Warwick?

Another myth is that if we had a regional assembly they would make better decisions than people in Westminster.

Whatever the arrangements, money coming from Westminster will have to be approved by Westminster, which means projects would have two systems to work through rather than one. The project would first have to convince the regional assembly and then the assembly convince the Government. This would be even more difficult if the Government was of a different political persuasion.

The 25 or so assembly members would be from different parts of the region and from different political parties.

They will have different agendas and I can foresee the possibility of alliances forming for their own narrow ends.

It is also unfortunate that many parts of the region are dominated by one party and, however good the party may be, such dominance can be unhealthy.

There are, of course, benefits from reorganising current local government.

There are several county-based organisations such as the Fire Service, which could be more efficient if administration and management were centralised, but this can easily be done without a regional assembly.

We don't want to be marginalised from the rest of England. All the issues that affect the well being of the North-East - health, law and order, and education - are countrywide issues with policy set nationally but carried out locally.

National policies should come down to the point of delivery as simply and as clearly as possible, without diversions such as Regional Assemblies, which simply cause delays and keep some of the money, which would be better spent on teachers, doctors and policemen.

Local government should come from the local communities with party politics being irrelevant.

To summarise, I believe we need a good Government in Westminster setting the macro issues including economic issues and public service levels while local issues are dealt with village by village and town by town.

A regional assembly would simply be somewhere in the middle, too small to affect the national scene while too remote to deal with local delivery.