We don't need the Internet, say 71 per cent of businesses in the Yorkshire region.

A new survey suggests that the majority of the region's business people disagree with Prime Minister Tony Blair's prediction that companies which do not embrace the Internet will go bust within five years.

But that does not stop the majority of them from already offering their products or services for sale online.

More than 200 owners or managing directors of businesses in Yorkshire and Humberside with annual turnovers of at least £1 million were surveyed by Business Information Publications (BiP), providers of public sector information and opportunities.

Most did not see the Internet as essential to survival, but 66 per cent - double the national average - were already using the Internet commercially.

The disagreement with Tony Blair was also in spite of an agreement by 52 per cent of respondents from the region that the Government would meet its own target of electronic delivery of all public sector dealing by 2008.

This is likely to have a considerable impact on the number of companies that tender for business from the public sector.

While 36 per cent of the Yorkshire region's companies already classed public sector contracts as an important source of revenue, more than a third - 41 per cent - simply did not bother, seeing the tendering process as daunting.

However, firms saw the benefit of electronic tendering, with ten per cent forecasting that it will revolutionise the way that their company does business with the public sector.

Ron Burges, managing director of BiP said: "We believe that as a whole UK companies are underestimating the significance of e-commerce. It will become obvious which companies are tapping into the Internet revolution. They will be the ones with impressive growth rates."

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