We must speak with one voice

Feb 23 2010 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

ONE North East outlined its ambitions for the region at an exclusive Evening Gazette event last week. Scores of industry leaders gathered to hear how the regional development agency aims to deliver results for the region. Sue Scott reports.

NEARLY three months after Tees Valley won a £60m payout from Government and the regional development agency to tackle its growing economic crises, a flurry of announcements is set to see the first cash delivered to businesses.

Last week, Lord Mandelson turned the tap on to the tune of almost £4m to protect apprentices, broaden re-training opportunities and encourage individuals with business ideas to put them into practice.

He followed that today with another £5m aimed largely at the North and South Tees process sector to part-fund investment in energy cost-cutting measures - a sorely needed initiative to help put them on a more competitive footing with rivals in the rest of Europe.

The remaining £50m is still to be earmarked.

But at an exclusive presentation to business and industry leaders hosted by the Evening Gazette on Friday, One North East pledged to deliver it as quickly as state aid rules allowed, while any barriers to achieving the aims of the Tees Valley Industrial Programme over the next two years would be demolished just as speedily.

However, it needed a new “spirit of partnership” between the public and private sector to be effective, said director of business and industry Ian Williams.

During a wide-ranging presentation, development agency chiefs - who won significant concessions from central Government over the rules about distributing Treasury-matched cash - urged companies to come forward with projects deserving support.

In return they pledged to speed up the bureaucratic process, remove some of the more unrealistic targets associated with Government handouts, and get to the heart of problems stunting and even reversing growth in the Tees Valley.

RDA chief executive Alan Clarke said it was a part of the region that had been particularly badly-hit during the back end of the recession, where job losses had only been minimised by companies implementing short-time working more widely than in any previous downturn.

Corus’ decision to mothball its Teesside Cast Products plant, which began at the weekened, was “particularly bad news” he said and contributed to the “real challenges” facing Tees Valley.

But he added: “Difficult as it is at the moment, we have to present a positive, compelling view of the future; if we do not, businesses will simply not come here.

“In that respect I applaud the Gazette’s Talk Up campaign.”

He added: “I think Tees Valley needs to speak with a single voice.

“We need a united front and a common purpose.

“If we do not do that it will count against the Tees Valley - and I will roll up my sleeves in respect of that.”

Setting out the detail of the eight-point programme, which is intended to leverage more than £8bn of private investment into the area on the back of which 3,000-4,000 jobs could be created over the next four years, Mr Wiliams said it was not “free money” but was intended to be used as a catalyst for further investment.

“It doesn’t mean we will support every project that comes this way but it is up to the private sector to come forward with its proposals.

“These opportunities do not come along very often and there is no other region I’m aware of (that has reacted like this) in the face of what is clearly a significant issue.

“We see advanced manufacturing and processing industries as key to Tees Valley going forward but there is a clear acknowledgment that we need to create jobs in the short term.”