Tyne and Tees - never have they contrasted so sharply

Feb 22 2010 by Kevin Rowan, The Journal

THE anticipated start of the mothballing process of Redcar Steelworks marks the beginning of an extremely difficult period in the economy and social fabric of the Tees Valley.

Whichever of the wide-ranging predictions about the actual numbers of jobs that will go prove to be accurate the fact is, if the likely scenario that a buyer is found in the next few weeks comes to pass, thousands of families will be facing a very bleak period indeed. Many of the workforce leaving Tata Corus will possibly never work again. Community, the trade union representing the majority of workers in the plant, are working hard to respond to a high level of demand for workers to access their company pension scheme at just 50 years old. The average age of the workforce is around 47. The efforts to retrain these workers or to direct them into self-employment will not be met with universal enthusiasm.

It is the case that the additional £30m to attract new inward investment will be valuable, it will provide some inducement to new industries in the bio-fuels and renewable energy sector, but these developments are going to take months, if not years, to generate reasonable levels of employment in the area. This remains, however, an appreciable government commitment to the area. Contrast this with the extremely positive, almost euphoric, atmosphere around the launch of the new Neptune Blade Facility by Clipper on the Walker Riverside in Newcastle. This new manufacturing base will provide 500 jobs this year making the largest wind turbine blades in the world, 71m of polymer and carbon fibre for the Britannia wind turbines to be embedded in large offshore wind farms in Dogger Bank and elsewhere.

This development is the culmination of years of effort and hard work by a number of partners, Shepherd Offshore, the regional development agency and NaREC being the main players – this would not have happened without the absolute and determined commitment of all of these partners. It is the case too that this is the first of a number of developments in the area of low carbon manufacturing. Clipper themselves are keen to develop partnerships to build the bases, the towers and the nacelles for the turbines, each creating thousands of new jobs and, an irony not lost in Teesside or anywhere else, demand for steel equivalent to building two navel frigates per week.

It is likely too that the establishment of a base for Clipper will act as a magnet for other players in the sector; Mitsubishi, GE Wind, Siemens and others are all actively considering the North East as a viable location for offshore wind developments. It is easy to over-hype these opportunities, but it is actually possible that the next industrial revolution could be happening here in the North East and that is something that should attract significant focus of attention locally, regionally and nationally and could be the key to helping areas like Teesside recover from the disaster of Corus’ closure.

Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of Northern TUC