NORTH-East businesses are the least ambitious in the country, according to a new study.

Nearly two out of three firms - 62 per cent - in the region are content to stay the same size, which is more than twice the average for UK companies, according to the Design Council.

But business leaders said that just because firms were happy with how big they were, they still had ambition.

Harry Rich, business director at the Design Council, said: "The relatively modest ambitions of most North-East companies could well be connected to the fact that they are not using design to drive their businesses forward."

Rachel Spence, head of policy at the North East Chamber of Commerce, said lifestyle companies - those content to stay a certain size - still had ambition.

"While it is certainly true that we do have a good number of lifestyle companies in the North-East, that does not necessarily suggest that we have a lack of ambition.

"To be in business these days you have to be, by your very nature, ambitious and work extremely hard just to stand still."