Great Reasons to do business in the North East: Newcastle Building Society

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By Stuart Miller, Chief Customer Officer at Newcastle Building Society

I had the joy of visiting a new housing development, The Sycamores, in Stockton-on-Tees recently. I really enjoyed meeting Karl Morton, Sales Director for the North East for Keepmoat Homes who showed me around and explained the vision for the site and how it was providing opportunities for first time buyers to get on to the property ladder in the area.   It was a joy, not only because it was one of the few times in the past 18 months that I’ve been able to step away from the home office for an in-person meeting (socially distanced of course!), but also because it was a thrill to see how things are changing in the town.

I grew up in Stockton, it was where I went to school, secured my first job, my parents have lived there for the past 50 years and my wife also works there, so I know it pretty well. But despite having spent so much time there, when I visited last week those sights and memories weren’t quite as familiar as I’d thought. It took a few minutes to realise that the development I was stood on was just a stone’s throw from the old swimming baths that I’d visited so many times as a child.

In short, the place had transformed. People have differing opinions on development and the built environment, but in a town like Stockton – and many others across the north east – investment into bricks and mortar is breathing new life into our communities.  Whether its homes, offices, hotels, retail or leisure facilities, it’s the built environment which characterises our towns and cities and makes our region a great place to live. What was also obvious while visiting the site to see was how these new homes would provide a steady flow of new footfall on to the nearby High Street, providing much needed opportunities for new and existing local businesses to grow and prosper.

When it comes to housing, I think the north east is blessed. Not only do we have fantastic towns and cities with good transport connections, we have low housing and living costs. It makes the north east an incredibly ‘liveable’ place.

Where the average UK house price is currently around £242,000 in the north east it’s just £144,000 – considerably lower than any other region, and a world away from the £500,000 average in London. It’s well documented that since the start of the pandemic, house price growth has accelerated and although the north is no exception, it remains one of the lowest priced areas in the UK.

The cost of living in the north east is exceptionally low too – we spend around £499 per week on household costs against a UK average of £585.But what really makes the north east so liveable compared to other places is that even taking lower north east salary levels into account, housing is much more affordable than elsewhere. The average first time buyer in the north east can expect to pay just 20% of their take home pay on a mortgage, compared to an average of 32% across the UK and a whopping 57% in London. Think about how much difference that makes to a first time buyer being able to afford to live, socialise, save, travel, and perhaps feel like there’s more to life than working to pay a mortgage?

At Newcastle Building Society, it’s a fundamental part of our Purpose to help people own their own home. Although house prices are lower here than elsewhere, first time buyers – particularly those without access to the bank of mum and dad – might wonder how they will ever save enough to raise a deposit. Add to that rising house prices and it must feel like a target moving rapidly in the wrong direction.

For some, the latest government scheme, First Homes, will be an attractive option. We’re one of the first lenders to support the initiative, which offers first time buyers and key workers a discount of up to 30% on the price of a new home, helping to bring home ownership within reach of thousands more families.

Although government support is welcome, including the Help to Buy programme, and the mortgage guarantee scheme, it’s vital that industry itself plays a role in helping people get on and up the property ladder.

Regional caps on the Help to Buy scheme has made it less accessible and with the overall programme due to end in 2023, it’s up to lenders to come up with innovative, sustainable solutions for prospective buyers. Deposit Unlock is one such innovation, which we’re proud to have brought exclusively to the north east ahead of a national rollout later this year. Working with four housebuilders, Barratt Developments, Bellway, Keepmoat and Vistry, we’re the first lender involved and already offering competitive mortgages on quality new-build properties requiring just a 5% deposit from the buyer.

Whether those properties are in Stockton, Sunderland or South Shields, it’s worth remembering that every housing development means homes for families, new communities and opportunities for future generations. The dream of home ownership is powerful and although the streets and roads around us might change, the north east will continue to be a great place to live.

Bridging the digital divide in the North-East

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Throughout June we’ve been focusing on the North East’s digital capabilities as part of our Great Reasons campaign. Here, our Partner members Pulsant explain how the traditional North-South technology divide is beginning to close as businesses in the North start to move more rapidly than those in the South.

A common perception is that the North-South divide creates challenges for businesses in the North East of England. This is particularly the case with digital transformation, with businesses closer to technology hubs in the South often at an advantage. However, with strong signs of regional resurgence and the emergence of UK-wide edge networks, businesses are poised to break down barriers of location and accelerate their growth plans.   

A growing economic opportunity

Much has been reported on the worsening North-South divide in England, driven by an array of social, cultural and economic differences. While many perceptions persist of the South benefitting from location, the North East is bucking the trend, achieving a sharp increase in private sector activity during May. The NatWest North East Business Activity Index, which measures the output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors, rose from 55.2 in April to 63.6 in May. The data also shows that new business grew for the third month in a row and private sector firms’ optimism about the year ahead rose to its highest level since March 2016. Increasingly, innovation is also making its home in the North East, with 13 of the Northern Tech Top 100 businesses now situated in the area.

The acceleration of digital transformation

Digital transformation is crucial to that growth but all too often businesses in the North of England have lost out on a competitive advantage to those in the South, due to their closer proximity to highly connected technology hubs such as London. According to new research from Pulsant, 61% of organisations in the South East and London say their location is advantageous to their digital transformation ambitions compared to just 41% in the rest of England.

However, the North is now moving ahead quicker than the rest of England, with 82% of businesses in the region saying the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation compared to 71% in the South. Pulsant’s research also found that when it comes to accelerating transformation, businesses in the North are deploying new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications (67%), migrating traditional workloads and data into the cloud (65%), and creating their own cloud-native applications (65%) faster than any other region, including the South.

The emerging edge opportunity

What’s clear is that the North East holds huge potential for growth and this is reflected in the region’s growing appetite for digital transformation. A crucial driver of that continued growth will be the emergence of UK-wide edge networks that bring connections closer to those regional businesses and end users.

Delivering services to end users relies on performing analysis on data as close as possible to the location where it is generated. The challenge with traditional data centre deployments in hubs such as London is that, for businesses in the North East, they are too far away from these sources.

In response to this challenge, Pulsant has made a significant investment in a new national network enabling edge computing. Our partnership with Zayo will see our 10 data centres across the UK, including Newcastle East and Newcastle Central, connected via Zayo’s high-performance fibre network to build a unique digital ecosystem. As a result, businesses in the North East can remove any pre-existing hurdles around location and benefit from high-capacity, low latency and agile connections to the edge.

A foundation for future growth

Advancing innovation and digital transformation has been at the forefront of our plans for many years – with our opening of the technology centre of excellence in the North East in 2019 one example of our work in regions. We’ve supporting 1000 clients in the North East region and as a partner member of the North East England Chamber of Commerce we’ve been a vocal advocate for digital transformation growth in the area.

While the North-South divide might continue to present challenges, there are clear and positive signs that businesses in the North East are bridging the digital divide to capitalise on the region’s economic opportunities. Continued innovations, particularly around the availability of edge networks, will be crucial in truly levelling the playing field, enabling every business to become a digital business and reach their true potential – regardless of where they are based.

Simon Michie, Chief Technology Officer at Pulsant

Pulsant.com

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Photo by Shahadat Rahman on Unsplash

Great reasons to do business in the NE

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Digital leadership is often referred to as being the navigation of a business towards digital transformation in order to stay competitive and agile. With a plethora of ‘digital’ solutions on offer, any business leader would be forgiven for handing ‘digital’ over to the technology experts – who surely must know what is right for the business? However, in my opinion, with the digital landscape more fragmented than ever, now is the time for business leaders to take a different view of digital and embrace all it has to offer. Our region is a great place to do business and to ensure it continues to be a great place to do business, we need to make sure our businesses’ digital capabilities are maximised.

Many senior managers will say they are ‘doing digital’ or have digitised their business, but often that means investing in new IT equipment which may (or may not) have an impact on business performance.

Being digital is so much more – it is about business first, technology second. It is about finding solutions to business problems using digital technologies, and that requires vision and leadership. Because of the diversity of approach to digital, there are different stages of digital maturity within different businesses. It’s important business leaders not only understand how digitally mature they are as a business, but also what the art of the possible is so that they can develop a roadmap for the future.

A business’s digital strategy needs to be aligned with the general business strategy – it cannot be developed in isolation and again, that requires leadership from leaders who understand digital. It is not simply the technology itself, but the impact it could have for the business. The beneficial impact of a properly aligned digital strategy can be wide ranging for any business which is why it is so important to have the leadership and the strategy to support it. The benefits are far ranging from increased focus on innovation, better use of business data, improved customer experience to more cohesive and streamlined communications and improvements in processes, efficiencies, and productivity, but business leaders need to have a digital mindset to fully embrace all that digital has to offer.

Digital leaders will set the vision, influence their people, define processes, look for continual improvement and track impact. Although it is essential businesses have stable and secure infrastructure, people are undoubtedly the most important factor in digital transformation, not technology. Leaders must understand how their employees and teams relate to and interact with that technology too. Most leaders are committed to investing in acquiring the right skills for them and their workforce to make the business successful but, all too often leaders are unable to identify and access suitable support and training.

 I’m not advocating that all business leaders become technology experts and add another string to their bows, but business leaders need to get involved, get educated and make decisions about their businesses having considered all possible solutions, including digital ones. And they need to be properly supported to do so.

At Square One Law, we work with all different types and sizes of businesses and I know from the conversations I have had there is a need for better signposting and visibility of the support and funding available to support digital activity, including digital leadership and the management of change.

We are working in partnership with the North East England Chamber of Commerce to try and set out clear recommendations to Government to enable the North East to capitalise on its potential as a centre of excellence for digital business. Having established a Digital Steering Group with a number of Chamber members from a variety of sectors, we have explored key themes on digital leadership and funding & growth finance, and in June we’ll be holding a final roundtable on digital skills and upskilling your workforce.

If you want to participate in our campaign or share your businesses digital transformation journey, please email [email protected]

Great Reasons to do business in the North East

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Mays great reason to do business in the North East celebrates our vibrant and culturally rich places. Fraser Anderson, director of external relations and strategic development at Sage Gateshead, discusses the importance of NewcastleGatesheads iconic imagery, our cultural organisations like Sage Gateshead, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Durham Cathedral and the wide variety of art, cultural and heritage experiences available in the North East.

The decision to live and work somewhere is not just about salary expectations, tax rates and house prices. These are of course important, but we also all want to feel part of somewhere– whether that’s a city, region, town or village. We know this because it has always been true. And culture is at the heart of this.

The cultural offer in NewcastleGateshead is rich and diverse, and it is a major draw for both visitors and those relocating from somewhere else. Before lockdown NewcastleGateshead’s major cultural venues attracted nearly 700,000 visitors. A thriving cultural life signals well-being, vitality and urban renewal. We know what this looks like when we see it. And the North East has it.

Making a creative, vibrant and culturally rich place involves lots of different things happening in lots of different places. It’s young people having access to music lessons, families being able to attend events, and artists being supported to fill communities with creativity. Admittedly this has all taken a knock during the pandemic, but here in the North East we’re working towards everyone being included in the creative life of the region.

But if you need a more tangible illustration still of what the region has to offer, look no further than NewcastleGateshead Quays. Born from a belief in the positive social and cultural impact of the arts on communities, Sage Gateshead and its riverfront cousin BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art have helped spark a culture-led regeneration. It’s been amazingly successful, with Sage Gateshead alone generating around £500m for the region since opening. But you don’t need facts and figures, just look – new housing and hospitality, spurred on by these cultural draws, sits happily around the quayside. People interact in these spaces and socialise around them with visible pleasure. I can think of few post-industrial urban riverfronts that have reinvented themselves so successfully.

The North East is not just NewcastleGateshead and it is beguilingly unique. It has a distinctive personality, which is of course is created by its people, their history and their context. Some of it is well-known worldwide; some of it might surprise. It’s no secret the region is football mad, but on Tyneside’s beaches there’s also a thriving surfing community. And those beaches – mile upon mile – all along the North East’s coasts are amazing.

The bridges that dominate postcards and promotional images of Tyneside are iconic, but so are the wider cityscapes. The Twentieth Century’s leading architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described the neoclassical sweep of Grey Street as one of the finest streets in England; Durham Cathedral as one of the great architectural experiences of Europe. Bill Bryson calls it the best cathedral on Earth.

Sport. Architecture. Countryside and coast. They are not what we might group together in the ‘arts’ but are part of a broader cultural offering in the North East. They bring us together and create special shared experiences. They shape us and the quality of our lives. It would be naïve to suggest these things can be accessed equally, across all sections of society, and there’s more work to do to connect everyone to culture.

Sage Gateshead, like others, has its own role to play here. The organisation was created as part of a movement to help drive social and economic regeneration through making world-class live music available in a world-class venue whilst also fostering individual musical creativity in schools, community halls and homes across the North East.

But now the pandemic has brought challenges to every area of cultural life. The arts have been hugely affected, with several impact studies showing it’s been substantially harder hit than even hospitality. We can’t take our artists and arts organisations for granted, and we need to support them to recover – without this many will continue to struggle next year, and this means financial support is needed. The arts and culture are an extension and provocation to our very humanity. We should aim to create a society where this richness can be experienced by us all, in the North East and across the country.

Of course, the government has a role to play – Culture Recovery Fund and Lottery support being two brilliant, important examples in the context of the North East. But we also need our regional financial success stories to support culture: after all, it is in everyone’s interest that our communities are happy and productive.

In April Sage Gateshead was thrilled that Dame Margaret Barbour and The Barbour Foundation awarded our organisation a gift of £1m to help with recovery and to encourage others to support the arts in the region. This donation is an extraordinary gift from a leading businesswoman who understands the value of our cultural life.

It’s great here, but there’s more to do – let’s not run the risk of reversing decades of incremental progress. And if you haven’t yet, come and see it all for yourself, now that you can.

Fraser is a Director at Sage Gateshead and one of those lucky enough to have relocated to the North East.

Great Reasons to do business in the North East: FUJIFILM

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April’s great reason to do business in the North East highlights how we’re open for opportunities and investment. Michael Lyons, Global CFO for FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies discusses the investment in the region, and how they’re at the forefront of opportunity.

“Ahh Fujifilm, you’re the guys that make the cameras, right?”

Not quite.

Until a few years ago, staff based at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies at Billingham faced this regular response when asked whom they worked for. This then followed a rather long discussion, that actually they did something very different but equally as interesting.

As Global Chief Financial Officer and fellow Teessider, I recognise that the North East is a special place to live and work and the things we do at times may not be obvious to the wider population.

We have a long and proud heritage, built on industrial revolutions from coal to shipbuilding and chemical to steel. We have revelled in innovating and thrived on manufacture. Today, I still see that as true but our direction of travel is slightly different. We may not have the behemoth corporations to rely on, but here in the North East, we have something else, something equally as special.

The recent advancement in technology start-ups, investments in energy, the explosion of service sectors including digital technology and companies such as FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, providing technical leadership and world class manufacturing facilities, continue to make the Northeast a fantastic place to invest, to grow and to thrive.

The ongoing success of the North East continues, despite however the challenges that we feel are often thrown at us.

Only last year, James Ramsbotham wrote of the need to narrow the gap between the North and the South, to ensure the Northeast is not left in the slow lane. Whether the past 12 months and the recent budget has helped level that will continue to be debated but the announcement of things including the Freeport at Teesside, the relocation of Treasury North, the launch of the levelling up fund, all in the recent budget announcement, go some way to supporting the ongoing positive change.

Here at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies we take great pride in our support of the North East region. A large number of local staff directly employed and the wider indirect impact on the local supply chain, our support of local charities, working with schools and Universities, and the continued investment in the site to ensure we remain world class and industry leading.

In recent years we have invested ca. £100m as we continue to grow our footprint. Passing visitors cannot fail to be aware of our new state of the art Bio Campus due for completion in the next few months, a testament to moving forward, standing resolute in the heart of Billingham, alongside more subtle improvements to enhance our research and manufacturing capabilities both at the main site and our ancillary location in Wilton at Redcar. Our core values of trust, delighting our customers, gemba (go see) and genki (being enthusiastic) run deep in all that we do. As a contract development and manufacturing we thrive on supporting our partners in the biopharmaceutical industry with the development and production of their biologics, viral vectors, and vaccines products.

Our staff work with many different partners on many different life-impacting therapies and it’s this realisation that we are working to make a difference to people’s lives that gives us the same passion and appreciation that we often see when talking to other companies throughout the North East and something we are seeing more and more.

Things like these assure me that the North East is going places! We are attracting global industries, investing in new technologies and there is a definite buzz around, despite the very challenging and difficult times we have all faced over the past year during the covid pandemic.

At FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, we will be playing a key role in moving forward from this terrible situation. We will be manufacturing millions of doses of a covid vaccine, much for distribution in the UK, made right here in Teesside in the Northeast.

That in itself is amazing.

Whilst we remain grounded and recognise that the relationship we have with our client to produce this vaccine is similar to what we have with others, it is difficult to hide the fact that the work we are doing is a little bit special.

Normally, the medicines we make are life- changing and life improving for patients, but they impact a much smaller population. In the manufacture of a COVID-19 vaccine, the situation is different in that it can potentially change millions of lives.

In February, following the COVID-19 announcement, we received a visit from the Prime Minister who toured the laboratories and manufacturing facilities and met some of the workforce who are playing a crucial role in vaccine production.

It does feel like the North East is on the up, the industries we serve are changing and growing and there is a feeling that the North East is going places.

It also feels great to hear ““Ahh Fujifilm, you’re the guys that make the COVID-19 vaccine!”.

Yes, that’s us, dedicated Partners for life, advancing tomorrows medicines.

“Shhhh, it’s supposed to be a secret!” – the North East and its quality of life

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For this month’s Great Reason to do business in the North East, Arlen Pettitt discusses our great quality of life.

I had been to the North East – Newcastle specifically – precisely twice before I moved here for good.

The first visit was a surprise birthday treat where I turned up at King’s Cross station with no idea where I was going, and so I arrived into the region with no preconceptions and really no clue what I was supposed to do or see either.

Luckily my now-wife Kate had a plan.

She also had an ulterior motive, which I discovered on the second day of our trip when she parked me on the roof terrace of The Forth on a sunny afternoon while she went off for a job interview.

She got the job and I got pleasantly tipsy in the sun while reading the paper.

And so, my second visit to the region was to find somewhere to live.

We talk a lot about quality of life as a huge selling point for the North East and I can personally vouch for the contrast with other parts of the country.

And it’s not just that I could get a pint for under a fiver.

We went from renting rooms in shared houses or flats to a two-bed place of our own – with our own front door and our own back yard – and we saved money doing it.

The prospect of owning our own home went from being a distant fantasy to an achievable reality. The average first time buyer deposit in London (£130,357) is 13 thousand pounds larger than the average mortgage in the North East (£117,518) according to Halifax.

Now, cost is one thing, but location obviously matters too.

In the space of half an hour in the North East you can go from a vibrant cultural centre to a stretch of dramatic coastline or to beautiful open countryside.

Having grown up about as far inland as it’s possible to be, the idea of being able to go to the beach any day you want still hasn’t lost its novelty, nor has the idea of getting lost on a walk in Northumberland or County Durham.

When I first moved up and couldn’t stop gushing about how much better it was than the crowded Tube and overpriced pubs I’d left behind, one thing people said time and again was “don’t tell everyone, or they’ll all want to come.”

I’ve obviously completely ignored those pleas, and now actively gloat about the positives of living here, peppering my social media feeds with pictures of big skies, sandy beaches and the Tyne designed to make those outside the region feel jealous.

I don’t think the North East should stay a secret.

My experience is that the region is a place where it’s very easy to put down roots. You can’t throw a stone in the North East business community hitting someone who thought they’d come here for a bit and who ended up staying the rest of their career.

In my mind there are three key reasons for that.

One – an open, friendly, collaborative culture which values and celebrates hard work, but which doesn’t fetishise it to the detriment of work-life balance.

Two – an industrial heritage which gives both a grounding sense of connection to the past, and inspiration for the future. That inspiration can be seen in the region’s excellent educational establishments – including Chamber Partners Gateshead College (who have been ranked the number one college in the country by the ESFA for the last two years) and Teesside University (who were the first modern university to win THE’s university of the year award).

Three – space. I mean this in a couple of different ways. There’s physical space (the North East has 2.7 million people in more than 3,000sq miles, compared to Greater Manchester’s 2.8m in 500sq miles), but also metaphorical space. It’s a less tangible benefit but the culture and heritage mentioned above, as well as being valuable in their own right, also create the room businesses and careers need to grow and give the opportunity to try things out. When costs are lower and the support is there, the odds are better in the entrepreneurial gamble.

Ultimately, what the North East is about -and this is true of me on a personal level – is potential.

The degree to which the region has remained a secret, a hidden gem, a closed shop or whatever you want to call it, has meant it remains full of untapped potential.

There’s room for productivity growth (where the region is about £8,000 per head below UK average), better graduate retention, pay growth (we’re £36pw behind out neighbours in the North West) and more business start-ups (our business birth rate of 12.7% puts us middle of the pack) to name just a few measures of future success.

I firmly believe we can collectively tap into that potential…then the secret will well and truly be out.

Great Reasons to do business in the North East: Housing

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March’s great reason to do business in the North East is our fabulous quality of life. Chris Smith, Executive Director of Business Growth at Thirteen Housing Group explains what’s brilliant about living here, and how Thirteen Housing Group are contributing to it.

Those of us born and bred in the North East – and those who have made their way here ‘temporarily’ to study or for a job, (and then never go back), know it’s a great place to live and offers a brilliant quality of life. We really have got some amazing assets in the North East, fabulous coastlines, accessible countryside, lovely towns and cities and then there’s the people! Of course, a fundamentally important issue is having somewhere to call home where you can be safe, thrive and give yourself and your family the best life possible. This has become ever more important over the last year when our homes have become our sanctuaries because of covid, and this has thrown into stark relief the fact that many people do not enjoy the same quality of accommodation as many of us take for granted.

As one of the largest social landlords in the North East, Thirteen Housing Group’s main purpose is to provide a range of affordable homes for rent and sale for people at any stage in their life. We’re passionate about building modern, spacious homes and have a large development programme delivering up to 600 new homes a year to add to our existing portfolio of over 34,000 homes. That might be a family home for rent, an apartment for people starting out in life, or more specialist accommodation for people who need more support to live independently. We also recognise that some people want to own their own home but can’t yet afford to, so we provide a shared ownership option, allowing customers to buy a part share of the property and rent the rest, buying more shares when they can until they reach full ownership if they want to. What matters is that we meet people’s individual requirements and provide the management and after care to ensure we provide a great experience to all of our customers.

But it’s not just about providing bricks and mortar, it’s also about supporting people at key stages, whether that’s to help them navigate the often-confusing benefits system, manage money, help them get a job or work to improve neighbourhoods and the community. These things make the difference to people’s wellbeing and help towards creating that quality of life we all strive for.

Unfortunately, there are areas in our region that there were once thriving communities, often linked to the old heavy industries around coal mining, steel production or ship building, but have declined over the years as the employment market and aspirations around housing have shifted. Some of these areas often display poorer housing standards, more transient populations and higher levels of deprivation. Funding to tackle issues like this on a large scale has all but dried up, but we can’t just abandon these places, especially when we have a stake in the area.

We like a challenge at Thirteen and regeneration has always remained on our agenda, so we have been actively working with communities and local councils in the region to help improve these older housing areas where we can.

One example of a successful project has seen us working in partnership with Middlesbrough Council in North Ormesby to deliver a range of interventions that might seem small scale but can make all the difference for people living in the community. And we think it’s vital to work with the local community, building on the positives that are already there rather than focussing on the negatives.

We’re three years into the project which has involved buying and improving empty homes to let at affordable rents, creating much needed green spaces, supporting local groups to grow, and helping people into employment and training.

We’re working on similar projects in Redcar and Sunderland, but our next big project is again in Middlesbrough in the heart of the town centre. Gresham has had its issues over the years and was once described as one of the most deprived areas in the country. Major plans to improve it collapsed mid-way through when the funding programme disappeared overnight and plans to regenerate the area stopped. That was 10 years ago, and Middlesbrough Council has tried to manage the area as best it can with little available funding.

Thirteen was approached to help out and asked to take a chance and develop 145 new homes in a large derelict area in the middle of Gresham. It was a big ask, but by working with the council to set out what else would be needed and to bring much needed resource into the mix, we have developed a bold plan for its regeneration. The council is actively doing its bit – basing front line services in the area to improve the environment, tackling anti-social behaviour and supporting the community to be resilient.

We’re optimistic about the future of Gresham now. While respecting its past we’re creating a whole new community in the heart of the town centre that will provide well designed, affordable homes for a diverse range of residents. It won’t exist in a bubble though, it will be part of Gresham’s history but in a new, improved and confident place that people are proud to call home. Alongside our other regeneration projects such as North Ormesby, Gresham is a demonstration of how regeneration projects are not just about bricks and mortar; they’re about making tangible improvements and helping to create a better life for people in communities for years to come and contributing to making the North East a great place to live, wherever your home is.

Chris Smith

Executive Director of Business Growth

Thirteen Housing Group

Great Reasons to do business in the North East

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Nadine Hudspeth, Director of Marketing at Gateshead College kicks off our February Great Reason to do business in the NE with a blog post on our leading education sector, and our collaborative work with the business community.

Access to talent is right up there with the top reasons to choose somewhere to set up or grow a business.

Those of us who live here know that North East people have a reputation for resilience, hard graft, friendliness and an ability to adapt to shifts in the regional economy that mean job opportunities today are likely to be very different tomorrow – this has never been truer as we emerge from the pandemic.

Equally the North East is a great place to live and this should help us attract talent but even that isn’t essential now that we have discovered the possibilities remote working offers; you can study and work nationally and internationally from your dining room if that is what you choose. This change in work and study patterns, and the speed with which we’ve embraced them, bring really positive opportunities for the future.

We can be rightly proud of the impressive network of education and skills providers in the region which support the development of the pipeline of talent every business relies upon offering a vast range of qualifications and specialisms. Our universities have global reputations for ground breaking research and play a key role in enabling innovation and entrepreneurship. They’re also trailblazers for higher skills programmes in many areas including health sciences, nursing and digital. Equally their track record in widening participation has never been more crucial putting us in a prime position to make sure that everyone has opportunities to pursue their aspirations for a great career.

My heart is in further education as you’d expect, and the launch of the FE Skills and Jobs White Paper last week rightly shines a light on the essential role of colleges and value of technical education. The report’s recommendations put employers firmly in the driving seat in shaping regional skills plans with Chambers of Commerce playing a pivotal role.

Developing curriculum to meet actual skills needs and preparing people for jobs has long been at the core of our strategy at Gateshead College where ‘education with employment edge’ has been our ethos for many years. Talent in the workplace is not just about the qualification, and our focus on wider personal skills development and character is equally as crucial with employers needing employees with a range of qualities and skills.

There’s countless examples of great collaborations between colleges and industry across our region, where working together to customise really high quality provision that provides pathways into jobs is the norm. The facilities we have access too are also first class with specialist centres for digital and tech, rail, marine, engineering, healthcare and more. And, given our Chamber’s strong relationship with providers and members, we are well placed to be amongst the first to pilot these recommendations and as a result see even greater collaboration which will not only help us fill skills gaps but spot opportunities that will ensure North East businesses prosper as we emerge from Covid-19.

The pandemic’s impact on some of our key sectors and unemployment for local people also gives us an opportunity to reinvent and retrain. Let’s all throw our weight behind the Chamber’s campaign to drive a better funding deal for adults and help influence the government’s promise of a Lifetime Skills Guarantee to make sure it is something which will enable all adults to secure a job and enable businesses to benefit from access to this great pool of talent.

And in the North East we recognise the importance of raising the aspirations of our young people. Making sure that they have access to really high quality and inspirational careers advice and guidance, to good role models, mentors and opportunities, and an awareness of what is possible if they work hard. I know we will continue to work together to make sure they don’t get left behind and programmes such as North East Ambition, Work Inspiration Gateshead and NE1 Can, amongst many others, alongside the work our business community does to engage young people, all have the potential to make a positive difference making sure the North East is the very best place to grow, attract and retain talent and a great place to do business.

Innovation and Invention in the North East

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Tom Kennedy takes a look at innovation across time and space in the North East of England

When it comes to innovation and invention the North East has a long and illustrious history. If you leave the Newcastle offices of the North East England Chamber of Commerce, cross the road and look up, you will see a blue plaque marking the achievements and life of Sunderland born physicist Joseph Swan. On 3February 1879, Swan made nearby Mosley Street the first street in the world to be lit by electric light. The idea of lighting streets with electricity caught on rather quickly and his incandescent lights went on to illuminate streets, homes and iconic buildings across the world, including the Savoy Hotel, London.

Another North East innovator, George Stephenson, son of Northumberland, pioneered the first railways. Stephenson was responsible for the first locomotive to carry passengers, the first inter-city railway line in 1830 and the ‘Stephenson Gauge’; the model on which the majority of global rail transport is run on to this day.

The long bloodline of inventive and forward-looking organisations still runs today, with our region full of some of the best examples of innovation in the UK.

Our region is home to five innovation ‘catapults’. Sector-specific clusters that aim to spur growth and innovation in emerging technologies including energy systems, advanced manufacturing, offshore renewable energy, advanced digital technologies and satellites. Along with these, Advanced Manufacturing parks in both the North of the region and the Tees Valley allow innovative firms to develop the North East’s proud manufacturing history well into the 21st Century.

Solving problems with new ideas is the key driver of innovation investment. A National Innovation Centre for Data hopes to contribute to government’s ‘Grand Strategy’ of growing the Artificial Intelligence and Data-driven economy from the centre of Newcastle. The first ever ‘Maritime Innovation Hub’ is in the North East, bringing together a number of businesses including Port of Tyne, PD Ports and Nissan in order to collaborate and develop solutions to challenges facing the maritime and logistics industry moving forward.

Our Health and Life Sciences sector sits at the cutting edge of the industry too. From Newcastle University’s ‘world-leading’ research in biological sciences to developments such as the National Centre for Ageing at Newcastle Helix and Central Park in Darlington, the North East is home to innovative Health and Life Sciences sector with every step of the process, from research to pharmaceutical manufacture present. Central Park – which is far more interesting than its namesake in New York – brings together Teesside University, Darlington College, the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre and the National Horizons Centre which carries out research, teaching and training in state-of-the-art facilities, a stone’s throw from international pharmaceutical and chemicals manufacturing firms in the Tees Valley.

One area where innovation perhaps stands out more than any other, as well as offering the most potential, is in low-carbon technologies and attempts to decarbonise the British economy. The North East sits at the forefront of green technologies with developments right across the region. Blyth is home to the Offshore Renewable Energy Centre, a world leading test, validation and demonstration facility specialising in wind, wave and tidal energy generation technology. The Port of Tyne based ‘Dogger Bank’ wind farm is set to be the world’s largest upon completion while the Tees Valley Combined Authority continues to demonstrate innovation in hydrogen fuel technologies and hydrogen powered transport solutions. Durham and Northumbria Universities find themselves in the top 20 in the UK for offshore wind research and Newcastle University, alongside Durham, are pioneering new energy solutions at the Integrated Smart Energy Lab (ISE Lab) – the world’s first multi-site energy laboratory. New meets old, where innovative renewable technology meets the North East’s proud manufacturing history in the production of Electric Vehicles – the only type of vehicle to still increase UK sales in 2020 despite COVID. Over 200,000 Nissan Leaf’s, the most popular small electric vehicle in the world, have been produced in Sunderland while innovative battery production and drivetrain research continue to grow in the North East both by academia and automotive manufacturers.

The challenges that present themselves today, the recovery from COVID-19, climate change, Britain’s departure from the European Union demand innovative and creative solutions. The North Easts commitment to forward-thinking problem solving, its world-class research and innovation centres along with a resilient business community mean that our region will be sure to contribute towards the solutions to all these challenges and are just one amongst many of the great reasons to do business in the North East.

James Ramsbotham’s latest for The Journal

Written by

Chamber Chief Executive, in his latest column for The Journal:

I make no apology for starting the year with a passionate appeal to Government to give us a vision for the future of our country.

Whether we were for or against Brexit is now immaterial. We have our destiny in our own hands, so what are going to do with it?

In 2020 there was much talk of ‘getting Brexit done’ as if it was the end of something instead of the beginning of our new relationship with the EU.

For our country to get back on its feet we must have a route map to what the purpose was of Brexit. It was championed as a goal in itself when in reality it was the mechanism to take back control, but not able to achieve anything on its own.

I would argue Brexit has actually shut more doors than it is likely to open.

The duty to show leadership is not only at a national level. We also need local leaders to pick up the challenge and show us the positive direction of travel for businesses and communities.

There is no doubt our country is in an extremely challenging situation with Covid and Brexit, which makes our need for strong, clear leadership even more important.

We need this direction to inspire people and give them confidence in their futures.

As a Chamber we know there are many world class businesses in the region, who work tirelessly to grow and develop their products and services. They have our support to tackle any of the challenges that come their way.

Earlier this week we began promoting Great Reasons to do Business in the North East. It is important we remind ourselves of the fantastic assets here, from the Newcastle Helix and Wearside’s IAMP to the NE LEP’s 31 enterprise zones and the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing in Newcastle, a £40m development.

We have so much to build on and feel proud about in our region.

There have been many columns over the past few months which talked about the importance of levelling up the country, enabling us to use our strengths more fully.

It has never been more urgent we are given the right decisions and investment to let our region create a strong economy, exploit our potential and blaze a trail.

I wish everyone all the best for 2021 and sincerely hope my own wish for clear leadership comes true.