IN the face of the coalition Government’s intention to do without all regional institutions there has been a desire in business, local government and your editorials to retain what was best here, including the One North East regional development agency.

I gave myself a surprise by calculating the economic size of the areas in 57 bids for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) that the Government is now considering across England.

The North-East, in fact, has a smaller number of employed people than some of the sub-regions which are uncontested LEP proposals and are expected to sail through despite Business Secretary Vince Cable’s criticisms that most of the 57 are too small.

Among the proposals, the North-East has the virtue of being the most “self-contained”

with only 3.5 per cent of work people travelling outside it for their jobs.

It therefore appears right that the North-East submissions recognised the need for a single over-arching LEP which could pull its weight against other such areas.

Mr Cable at one stage said that a North-East single LEP would be considered, while the Conservatives once said that two areas of England enjoy a real identity, London and the North-East.

Professor Alan R Townsend, Low Willington, Crook, Co Durham.