DEVELOPMENT of high-tech jobs in some parts of Britain is lagging behind countries such as Romania and Montenegro.

New Labour research has shown that areas such as Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire and north-east England have fewer high-tech job opportunities than some of the least developed European countries.

But such jobs proliferate in London and the south-east, making yet another mockery of the government’s much-trumpeted “levelling up” project.

Labour officially publishes the new analysis of jobs involving high-tech training and skills today.

Areas around Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire have nearly one in eight jobs in high-tech sectors, whilst some areas of central London have nearly one in 10, Labour’s report on the research says.

This compares to less than one in 50 in Lincolnshire and around one in 40 in South Yorkshire and Tees Valley.

Eight per cent of jobs in London are in high-tech sectors, compared to 3.7 per cent across the whole of the north and Midlands, it found.

Despite big promises, the report argued that the government is “nowhere near on-target” to address this regional divide. 

On the current trajectory, it would take places like the Tees Valley 120 years to hit the British average for high-tech jobs, it claimed.

Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy attacked the government for “lacking ambition for our places and our people.”

“Good opportunities must be spread throughout the country, so young people have choices and chances and don’t find themselves having to get out to get on.”

Yorkshire and the Humber TUC secretary Bill Adams said that “once again people right across the north … are being asked to bid for very small pots of money for so called levelling up.

“Promises by Boris Johnson that opportunities for better jobs and higher pay have failed to materialise in a miserable and underwhelming plan which will do very little for the north of England.”

George Dibb, head of the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) Centre for Economic Justice, said: “Any government needs to flesh out how this higher and more widespread investment will be delivered. 

“That means committing to put real money behind it, and taking steps to embed it so that it survives for the longer term.

“IPPR has also argued for up to £30 billion additional investment a year to tackle climate change, meaning the creation of new jobs around the country to undertake the work that is needed.”

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was asked to comment.