KEEPING matters in perspective, Lord Howell is an irrelevancy. A wellheeled, well-connected irrelevancy, no doubt, but it is a long time since he was anywhere near the centre of power. While his son-in-law, George Osborne, might from time to time receive the benefit of his wisdom, or lack of it, there’s nothing to suggest he has any say in policy matters.

His awful remarks about our region – the political equivalent of a cat dragging its claws across a chalkboard – can’t be filed and forgotten, though. Because they typify an ignorant bias about the North-East that has bedevilled successive governments and cost us and the nation dearly.

Despite being the engine room of the nation, maker of iron and steel, ships and locomotives, the North-East has almost always lagged behind the rest of the country in terms of productivity. According to one survey, the North-South gap is 15 to 20 per cent wider than it was before the downturn began in 2008. This cannot be allowed to go on.

Halving the productivity gap would boost the UK economy by £40bn, the equivalent of increasing the productivity of every worker in England by £1,600.

It can be done. From admittedly modest beginnings, entrepreneurial activity, according to IPPR North, increased by 59 per cent between 2002 and 2008. Our universities are beacons of excellence and an invaluable resource for industry. From the established process, petro-chemical and advanced manufacturing sectors, to carbon capture and digital technology, we have companies which can claim to be world leaders.

Yet, the image of a desolate backwater still strikes a chord with far too many people, while the reality of low wages and insecure employment, or lack of work, is still eating away at communities and conurbations.

That is why it is vital that the City Deal bid, constructed by the Tees Valley’s business and council leaders, succeeds.

The deal would involve decisions about investment in infrastructure and training being taken locally. In other words, it would end the Whitehall “we know best” culture that has seen the region’s economy run by people who have limited knowledge and accountability.

The agenda has to be about empowerment and, in this context, it has to be the devolution of power from Whitehall to the regions.

That will need a change of attitude, not just from dinosaurs like Lord Howell, but at the highest levels of Government where the drive to concentrate and exercise power centrally has always begun and still shows little sign of let-up.

That change of attitude must begin with the kind of coherent, regional policy that we were inching towards a few years ago, but which has slipped down the list of Government priorities.

Maybe that’s understandable given the desperate state of the economy, but the longer it is put off and the South-East allowed to overheat while the North-East – and the North West and Midlands for that matter – shiver, the greater the injustice, inequality and sheer wasted potential will become. The predicted boom in house prices in London and the south could be the trigger that will effectively make us two nations.

Those of who live in the dynamic, aspirational and can-do north know that Lord Howell’s comments are a travesty. The trouble is that without corrective action, they could be a reality in one or two generations’ time. We can’t allow that to happen.