LIFE expectancy in the North- East is increasing – and the gap between the region and the rest of the country is slowly narrowing, figures suggest.

Boys born in the North-East between 2008 and last year will on average live to 77.2 years, while girls can expect to live to 81.2, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In 1991-93, the comparable figures were 72 for boys and 77.4 for girls.

Although life expectancy remains lower than elsewhere, the gap between the North-East and other regions is gradually getting smaller.

In the South-East, boys have a life expectancy of 79.7 and girls 83.5 – a gap of 2.5 years and 2.3 respectively on their North-East counterparts.

However, children born between 1991 and 1993 in the South-East would on average live longer by 2.9 years for boys and 2.7 for girls. The pattern is repeated elsewhere in the country, with the North- West now replacing the North-East as the region with the lowest life expectancy.

The exception is London which continues to see its life expectancy increase faster.

Despite the gap narrowing, some areas of the region continue to have a much lower life expectancy than others.

For boys, Hartlepool has the lowest life expectancy at 75.9 years, while girls in Middlesbrough can expect to live to 80.2. In contrast, life expectancy rates in North Yorkshire are 79.7 for boys and 83.7 for girls.

Professor David Hunter, from Durham University’s Centre for Public Policy and Health, said the smoking ban and the efforts of anti-smoking body Fresh had resulted in large numbers of smokers in the region quitting, which would improve life expectancy.

Grahame Morris, Labour’s MP for Easington and a member of the Health Select Committee, said he was concerned that the narrowing of the gap would be reversed under the Tory-led Coalition, which he accused of moving money aimed at reducing inequalities from the North to more affluent parts of the country.

He said: “We need a whole system approach to public health.”

Nationally, at birth men in the UK can now expect to live on average to 78.2, while women will live to 82.3.