EAST LANCASHIRE has always had a low wage economy. From the days when textile mills fired the industrial revolution, rates of pay have always been poor.

The old mill bosses may have bequeathed a legacy of grand public buildings to their towns, but their largesse was seldom if ever extended to their workers.

Today, East Lancashire workers remain entrenched at the bottom of the pay league. The average gross weekly wage in the area is £353.20 a week - £57.40 less than the national average.

And if you think it is all just a North-South divide thing, you would be wrong. The average Lancashire wage is £382.30 a week and the North West figure stands at £385.70.

So why has East Lancashire fallen so far behind in the pay stakes? And with unemployment in the area below the regional average, is low pay such a bad thing?

Poor wages have been a fact of life for over a century, forged by a historic combination of low skills and high unemployment. With a seemingly bottomless pool of inexpensive labour, it is no surprise that employers historically paid what they could get away with.

East Lancashire has been built on traditional industries like textiles. While cotton is no longer king, the old mills have cast a lasting cloud on the area's economy.

One of East Lancashire's largest employers is the 'catalogue and fulfillment' industry which involves an estimated 5,000 workers. Redundant textile mills were ideal bases for the large warehouses that are central to the home shopping operations. Built in existing centres of population, they were spacious and cheap.

Companies such as Express Gifts, with centres in Church and Nelson, have developed into major businesses. Reality, the new names for Great Universal Stores, employs 800 people at its customer contact centre in Burnley and a further 100 at its delivery depot in Blackburn. Look carefully at product promotions and you will generally find an East Lancashire address to send your special labels to exchange for a gift.

The industry has brought employment to East Lancashire. Many of the jobs are part-time, with flexible hours ideal to arrange around domestic commitments. But no one would pretend that they are highly skilled or well-paid.

Whether we like it or not, our low wage structure is often cited as a reason for business and industry moving to East Lancashire.

Earlier this year, Capita, the group which has taken over the running of some of Blackburn with Darwen Council's services, acknowledged that low employment costs was one of the factors that encouraged it to open a regional centre in Blackburn. For the past 20 years, council economic development bosses have been hammering home the message that East Lancashire's skills base needed to improve if we are to compete in today's global economy. Building on the work of ELTEC, the Lancashire Learning and Skills Council is working with companies throughout East Lancashire in a bid to improve their competitiveness by raising the skills of their workers.

Everyone admits that East Lancashire is too heavily-depended on manufacturing. In the chase for inward investment, councils are looking for the holy grail of well-paid jobs in the service sector.

So far, they have met with only limited success. At the risk of seeming defeatist, I cannot see East Lancashire ever becoming the 'Home Counties of the North'. Our economy has been shaped in history and tradition and you cannot escape your past.