ALMOST a third of North-East adults are unable to do simple sums and more than a quarter have problems reading a newspaper, a conference has revealed.

The statistics emerged at a conference at the Ramside Hall Hotel, in Durham, yesterday, organised by the Government Office for the North-East (Gone) and attended by businesspeople from across the region.

It marked the start of the second of two weeks of events highlighting people's lack of basic skills and showing how this affects local businesses.

Jonathan Blackie, Gone regional director, said: "Up to seven million adults in England, that's one in five, cannot read or write at the level expected of an 11-year-old.

"In our region, things are even worse. Almost a third of adults in the North-East have poor numeracy and over a quarter have poor literacy - about 439,000 people in all."

Mr Blackie said the region's low basic skills levels were a legacy of its industrial past, when people were not required to be able to read, write or do sums.

"This lack of basic skills impacts not only on individual levels of income and health, but also on the region's competitiveness," he said.

"In line with the national Department for Education and Skills target, we aim to reduce the number of adults who have literacy or numeracy problems by 40,000 by 2004."

A "tool kit" for employers, providing tips on how to integrate basic skills training into normal work activities, was launched at the conference, and a Basic Skills Regional Task Force is to be set up by the end of next month.