Redcar

Financial support could benefit Scotland and areas such as Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Redcar in North Yorkshire "which have a strong history of steel production", the DBT said.

Redcar and Cleveland Council and Middlesbrough Council also took part in the trial.

But the figures could drop by 7% in the North East as a whole, with Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton and Hartlepool, on Teesside, all predicting pupil numbers to reduce by as much as 10%.

“We have become a dumping ground for everybody else’s rubbish by stealth,” says a Liberal Democrat councillor in Redcar, Dr Tristan Learoyd.

Middlesbrough's exclusion rate of 28.18% is three times the national average, while Redcar and Cleveland's is even higher at 32.79%.