THE transfer of tens of millions of pounds of emergency NHS cash from North to South is “fair”, the Health Secretary insisted today (Tuesday, January 13), as anger grew.

Jeremy Hunt defended the settlement by telling MPs there were “a lot of older people and vulnerable people” in the areas receiving the largest sums.

The controversy was raised in the Commons after The Northern Echo revealed many areas will receive 15 times more money than most of the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in this region have been handed the smallest increases in their budgets from a £2bn emergency fund – just 0.24 per cent in most cases.

In stark contrast, other areas – mainly in London and the South-East – have been given funding boosts of more than 3.5 per cent, for the 2015-16 financial year.

During health questions, Tom Blenkinsop, the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP demanded to know why his South Tees CCG was receiving a “below-inflation pittance”

And North Durham MP Keven Jones accused ministers of ignoring “need” in the allocation of NHS cash – in the same way that it had been dropped from the funding formula for local councils.

But Mr Hunt insisted he had played no part in the funding allocations which were a matter for the independent organisation NHS England, set up for day-to-day running of the health service.

He told MPs: “It made the decision on the basis of which CCGs were most off their target allocation and on social deprivation and the number of older people.

“There are many older and vulnerable people in the South, too, and they need a fair settlement from the NHS. That is why the decision was made.”

However, NHS England – when it slipped out the allocations, on the Friday evening before Christmas – made no mention of more pensioners in the areas gaining most.

Instead, it said it was favouring parts of England “where the population is growing rapidly, and where services are under greatest pressure”.

An analysis, by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), found that 11 of the 14 CCGs in this region will receive just 0.24 per cent extra, worth just £400,000 to Darlington, for example.

But ten CCGs are gaining 3.7 per cent or more, including in Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead, Bedfordshire, Bromley, in Kent, and in Slough.

The HSJ found the biggest increases had gone to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in areas with Conservative and, to a lesser extent, Liberal Democrat MPs.

Furthermore, some groups have been forced to rip up their plans from April because they are now receiving less money than expected, it said.

Mr Blenkinsop asked Mr Hunt: “Why are more than 50 CCGs in the South of England to receive a 3.6 per cent increase in funding to the detriment of the north?”