FURTHER evidence of the North-South divide has been uncovered during a study of the impact of the nation's economic growth.

An in-depth analysis carried out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation revealed that the decline in the number of benefit claimants has been incredibly slow in the manufacturing, industrial and former mining areas of the North-East and Yorkshire.

Researchers commissioned by the York foundation found that low local rates of people leaving benefits were associated with "multiple deprivation", including long-term unemployment, ill health and poor educational achievement.

The proportions of unemployed claimants who left benefit from 1995 to 2000 was highest in the South-East, South-West and London, and lowest in the North-East, North-West, Yorkshire and the Humber.

The research, carried out by Oxford University and the London School of Economics, included special case studies of three urban areas - Hartlepool, Manchester and the London Borough of Brent.

Only about 65 per cent of claimants in the North-East left benefits in the five years covered by the study, compared to 75 per cent in the southern regions.

A similar regional pattern applied to lone parents, with the exception of London, where the percentage leaving benefit was lower than anywhere else in the country.

Report co-author Martin Evans, a senior research fellow at Bath University, said: "Not only has every area benefited from economic growth, but the 20 per cent of areas with the highest proportion of claimants have contributed most to falling unemployment.

"Even so, they have been left behind because benefit claims in other areas fell faster. This means that England is both growing together and growing apart.

"What we see in the study are the ways that geography and individual circumstances overlap to produce results that defy simplistic analysis.

"For instance, we find much evidence to support a growing North-South divide, but it is not the only story by a long way.