Transformation is truly amazing

Jun 12 2007 by Evening Gazette

WELCOME to our comment column, in which leading figures from the business community in the region present a thought-provoking view on an issue affecting their company or organisation or the wider community.

Today it’s the turn of Jennifer Welch, pictured right, operations director, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors North.

IN MY job with RICS I cover an immense area.

It includes the North-east, the North-west and Yorkshire and Humberside, which means a great deal of travelling.

So I get to see a lot of what’s happening on the ground.

When it comes to spotting areas on the up, chartered surveyors have a simple measure; it’s called the crane test.

Cranes tend to signify major construction work, this in turn requires investment and that suggests a certain confidence in the area.

If property developers are investing money - their own and other people’s - then you can be certain they have researched the market thoroughly.

They know that a local economy has turned a corner, that entrepreneurs are looking for offices and starter units, that bigger companies are being attracted by good infrastructure, access to new markets, a well educated and willing workforce, or a technology is emerging that will offer a spectacular return on outlay.

In all my travels, I don’t think I've seen more cranes on the horizon than there are currently in Tees Valley.

And not just real cranes but “virtual cranes” too as the region rapidly builds a reputation as a centre of excellence in cutting-edge technologies.

I think the transformation has been truly amazing. I’m loathe to admit it but I can remember (just!) the region being dominated by the heavy engineering, mining and the old-style chemical works.

Today, any glance at the pages of the Evening Gazette will tell you how things have changed. We have a process industry that has reinvented itself and now has a global reputation, a burgeoning digital design and media industry led by a highly regarded university, and a growing reputation in biotech skills.

Who’d have thought Tees Valley would ever be a leading light in the development of biofuels and other forms of renewable energy? And that it would be attracting interest and investment from other parts of the world!

Flagship developments like Stockton Riverside’s North Shore, Central Park in Darlington, Hartlepool’s Victoria Harbour and Middlesbrough’s Middlehaven indicate a massive shift in ambition and prosperity for the region.

Crucially, we also seem to be doing it right.

As someone whose working day revolves around issues in the built environment and those who work in construction and development, I can see that we are not forgetting the important things in all of this - people!

A truly inspirational example of this is mima, Middlesbrough's fantastic Institute of Modern Art. From a purely physical development point of view, it's a stunning building and public space (a category winner in this year's RICS North East Renaissance Awards!) For me, it finishes off the centre of town perfectly.

On another level, it’s a coming of age sign for Middlesbrough and the region. It takes a certain maturity to be visionary about the cultural agenda, rather than purely focused on economic and social matters.

It says there's more to life than working, eating and sleeping…quality of life is important too.