LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg, right, has warned the south it will have to shoulder a bigger share of pain over the next five years than it did during previous economic crises.

The Deputy Prime Minister, in a keynote speech at his party’s conference in Liverpool, yesterday highlighted a range of Government policies designed to protect northern towns and cities at the expense of those in Hampshire and the wider region.

They included the £1bn Regional Growth Fund, designed to replace the cash invested by the outgoing regional development agencies but – as Mr Clegg admitted – focused “specifically” on those areas of the country that have been “dependent”

on public sector jobs.

Mr Clegg also cited the National Insurance tax break for new businesses outside London, the South East and the Eastern regions – exclusions that have been criticised by the Federation of Small Businesses.

The Lib Dem leader, calling for a “rebalancing” of the economy in favour of the North, said in slashing Government spending to pay off the national deficit by the next election, ministers would “learn from the mistakes of previous recessions”.

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, warned Mr Clegg not to forget about the south.

He said: “The cuts that will be announced in the spending review, and those that have already taken place, will hit the whole country very hard.

One of the Government’s early backward steps, which will damage the South, was to remove the regional development agencies. It is important that economic assistance is not just concentrated in one part of the country, but is available nationally.”