CONTROVERSIAL cabinet minister Eric Pickles yesterday insisted he had gone out of his way to help the North- East, despite councils in the region facing unprecedented budget cuts and huge job losses.

Speaking in South Shields, South Tyneside, the Conservative Local Government Secretary, who once branded the region’s council leaders stupid if they could not cope with this year’s near-£200m of cutbacks, said he had done his best to ensure the North- East faced lower cuts than elsewhere and that sensible councils should have been ready.

He said he was in a hurry to make cuts, and said that if decisions were delayed, the country would face “enormous”

cuts later.

He said: “I have gone out of my way to help areas like this.

“I did my best to favour the North of England. This area gets infinitely more (in grants) than, for example, Surrey.

“The local cuts are, as a percentage, smaller, because we ensured richer areas had a bigger cut.

“Alistair Darling (Chancellor under Gordon Brown) made it quite clear this was going to be the year of cuts.

Sensible councils knew it was coming.

“I worked quite hard to protect them as much as I could.

It is a bit disingenuous for them to say it was a surprise.”

Mr Pickles’ comments were seized on by Sunderland City Council leader Councillor Paul Watson, who is chairman of the Association of North-East Councils. He accused him of having a blind spot to the region’s needs, and said: “His school report would say ‘must try harder’.

We have had massive cuts compared to Tory-controlled councils.”

Mr Pickles was in South Shields to lead a ceremony to mark the completion of building work on the £10.5m Harton Staithes business centre.

He also visited a housing project in Newcastle, met bosses of Nissan, in Washington, Wearside, held talks with council and business leaders about Local Enterprise Partnerships and spoke at the North-East Economic Forum.

He said: “This was once the engine room of the world and I see no reason why the North should not be making a huge contribution to the economy.

“We have got to look to Enterprise Zones and Local Enterprise Partnerships and I am here to work as closely as I can with local leadership.”