RE your article about average earnings in the Redcar and Cleveland area (Echo, some editions, Aug 13). Local MP Vera Baird is quoted as saying that Redcar and Cleveland is the only area in the North-East where average weekly earnings are higher than the national average.
This is simply not true. Latest information from the Office of National Statistics shows Redcar and Cleveland well behind the North-East and national averages.
All recent studies, such as that by the Institute for Public Policy Research, show low average pay in the Teesside area and that the North-South gap is widening.
Nobody can pretend that there are easy answers to these problems, but having our politicians in denial certainly doesn't help.
Ian Swales, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Redcar.
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