TONY Blair yesterday refused to offer any quick fix solutions to the region's troubled business community, instead taking the chance to reaffirm the Government message that a tough economic policy was the best way ahead for Britain and the region.

The Prime Minister was in his Sedgefield constituency to officially open two high-tech plants at Ultronics, and on the site of the former Fujitsu factory.

But he launched into an impromptu speech to staff at Filtronic in Newton Aycliffe, insisting that controlling interest rates and inflation were the key ingredients of a successful economy.

Mr Blair spoke of the need for people and businesses to change to confront the problems of modern society, choosing the new Filtronic factory on the former Fujitsu site to hammer home the New Labour message. He said: "This firm (Filtronic) represents the phoenix rising from the ashes that were here (Fujitsu)."

Mr Blair spoke of the "body blow" that the whole region felt when Fujitsu closed its plant in 1998.

"But what has actually happened is that virtually everyone that used to work there has now found something else. This is the way the new and modern economy is going to work," he said.

Mr Blair spoke people's need to change, and of figures in America which revealed one in four families there change their home every year in their search for work.

But Paul Nowak, regional secretary of the TUC, said: "What we want is for work to come to people in this region, and for work to stay in this region. More investment in people, and the Filtronics and Ultronics of this world will keep coming here."