A NORTH-East Labour MP has claimed a £2bn Government scheme to cut poverty just moves drug dealers to other neighbourhoods.

City of Durham MP Gerry Steinberg criticised the flagship New Deal for Communities (NDC) scheme for concentrating on 39 deprived areas at the expense of thousands more.

His comments came as the Commons Public Accounts Committee questioned civil servants in Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's department about the progress made.

Under the NDC, £53.8m is being pumped into the East End and Hendon areas of Sunderland, a scheme unveiled in 1999.

The three other North-East projects are West Central Hartlepool (£53.8m), West Middlesbrough (£52.1m) and West Gate, Newcastle (£54.9m).

Accounts committee member Mr Steinberg asked: "What you are saying is there is £2bn, over ten years, going into 39 projects. What about the other 1,961 areas of deprivation?

"What about the situation in my constituency, for example, which I'm sure is relevant in every constituency in the country?

"You have a deprived area, which has the money, literally within spitting distance of another deprived area, which also has difficulties but gets none," he said.

Mr Steinberg suggested the result was that criminals such as drug dealers were being driven out of areas boasting better housing and facilities.

He warned: "One deprived area gets better, but the area ten yards away declines. You haven't solved the problem, you have moved the problem."

Mr Steinberg also raised concerns over whether the improvements could be sustained at the end of the ten-year funding period, if responsibility fell back on local authorities.

Last year, a study by academics at Sheffield Hallam University said the NDC had "not yet made significant progress" in cutting crime, creating jobs and boosting educational standards.

However, a more recent report by the National Audit Office was more upbeat, concluding it had "started to make significant investments to tackle deprivation".