Another kick in the teeth for the North East of England

Whilst desperately needed infrastructure projects are cancelled in the North East, the South gets a new £9bn Thames crossing. Meanwhile the London Press sneer at those caught in the British rust belt.

The Tyne Bridge, a major artery for the whole North East desperately needs repairs - the Government has refused to contribute to the £6m required.

With news that the Lower Thames Estuary Crossing has been approved by the treasury and billions of pounds of taxpayer cash will be spent on it, people in the North East are once again the poor relatives as desperately needed infrastructure projects are cancelled.

To add insult to injury, an article in the Telegraph today discussed the plight of Stockton on Tees which apparently has one of the most ‘workshy’ populations in the UK. The article was full of examples of feckless Teesiders claiming benefits rather than working.

The comments section was the usual collection of misinformed boomers harumphing into their cornflakes whilst enjoying the equity in their Tunbridge homes. With some insightful comments and the usual smattering of leftie trolls. I was struck at the lack of empathy for the plight of this town in particular.

The article neglected to mention that Stockton did, until as recently as 2008 have world leading manufacturing in the chemical and steel industry. The largest employer then was a blast furnace, a state of the art one of the type used to make specialist steels for submarines, ships, armour etc. This was a well run business it had hundreds of well paid skilled employees, they in turn supported local businesses. The management and unions worked well together and had secured an orderbook two and a half years long.

Then in 2008 the bankers who extended the furnace owners their operating capital called in the loan and cancelled the credit essential to run a business of this type. The reason? The same bankers had irresponsible investments especially in sub prime mortgages and the western banking system crashed. The owners, management and unions turned to the Brown government for help. They needed £100m of credit to keep the furnace burning and to maintain the profitable business, which again, was the main employer in the town. The week that Brown bailed out the banks to the tune of billions of our money, he refused the loan to Stockton.

Brown was warned of the devastating impact this would have on the town, but he ignored those warnings. The furnace closed and was dismantled and moved to India. The impact was devastating and the Telegraph article is the consequence.

Meanwhile the neighbouring towns and cities along the Tyne, Wear and Tees are seeing what business they got from the oil and gas sector evaporate as Miliband’s Net Zero Policies bite. Commercial energy prices are now double those of France and Germany and four times those of the USA - don’t even bother comparing China, Russia and India.

Now the government is poised to remove benefits from people who have little chance of getting valuable paid work, with energy prices soaring and policies which strangle growth, with SMEs closing in the area faster than many parts of the country. What, Mr Starmer, is the plan here?

You see, as a businessman, I am all for people working rather than taking benefits, but there is work and there is work. The only way to fix this problem is to encourage investment by creating the infrastructure and conditions for business to thrive. This means decent public transport, it means cheap energy, it means low taxes and less red tape. The policies that are crippling growth in London are even more devastating in areas like the North East. The reality is that most people, especially in rural areas, work for SMEs and they are laying off staff as they brace for the NI rise. I run an HR consultancy and we service SMEs many local, they stopped recruitment in October and are now gearing up for redundancies. There is no other work.

As a Scottish exile in Northumberland, I have learned to understand the attitude of the doughty North Eastern English, and their frustrations. Here’s one: London media and politicians referring to ‘the north’ when they actually mean the Manchester-Leeds corridor. Manchester is a three hour drive south from my house in Northumberland. Leeds, at least two and a half hours. So when ‘northern investment’ is bandied about you can guarantee that very little of it will make it as far as Berwick.

A story that many of the national papers missed, but which was headline news in Newcastle’s Chronicle Newspaper, is the good news for the South East that the lower Thames crossing has been approved. £9bn total cost, about £2bn from the UK taxpayer and £800m of investment to date. I’m sure it will bring huge prosperity into the region and some parts of the Thames Estuary desperately need it.

So why was the Chronicle so angry? Well because the government has to date refused to assist with a £6m contribution to help repair the creaking Tyne Bridge. You see, unlike other historic bridges, the Tyne Bridge is still an essential artery. The geology of the Tyne gorge is why Newcastle is where it is, until relatively recently, the ¼ mile of central Newcastle was the only place you could bridge the Tyne between the sea and a distance of 18 miles inland. It’s why the New Castle was built on the northern side of the crossing - who controlled the crossings at the Tyne and Tweed ruled Northumberland and in the days when England and Scotland were warring nations, this was important. The geology remains a challenge and subsequent bridges outside the ‘bridge zone’ have cost millions of pounds and have posed significant challenges. The Tyne Bridge remains one of the busiest on the river. It’s also aging and desperately needs some major repairs.

Then there is the A1. It’s about 95 miles between Newcastle and Edinburgh. There’s 40 miles of England north of Newcastle. Edinburgh is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, the Scottish government, for all its many follies has invested in transport and infrastructure links across the Lothians and Borders. There is now a train service to Melrose and the Tweed Valley, which is bringing jobs and economic benefits to the area. !0 years ago the final part of the dual carriageway between Edinburgh and Berwick was completed. The nearest major cities to Edinburgh are Glasgow and Newcastle. There’s been a motorway to Glasgow for 40 years now, the road to Newcastle however, remains a single carriageway for a significant portion of the 40 miles between the border and Newcastle.

It’s extraordinary that two major European cities like Edinburgh and Newcastle do not have a proper highway connecting them in 2025. The Tories realised this and eventually decided to dual the A1 to the border, turning down another badly needed upgrade, the A69 to Carlisle. This was welcomed by those in Morpeth, Berwick and Alnwick at last they would have a road fit for purpose. At last Berwick people might take their trade to Newcastle rather than Edinburgh, further but quicker to get to. And then Starmer wins the election and the improvement gets canned.

About 20 years ago I worked in London, at Transport for London. I’ve always kept a close eye on transport matters and at the time, in the early noughties, TfL was gearing up to spend the £34bn to build cross rail. Another project was the Queen Elizabeth Line and the extension of the Jubilee. Battersea was to get a tube station, to join its excellent rail and bus links. In 2010 the UK taxpayer was subsidising each Londoner’s annual public transport (road, rail, buses etc) to the tune of about £18 per annum. That figure in Northumberland was 4 pence. There’s a train line from Newcastle to Carlisle, but if you live in Hexham or Haltwhilstle and need to be at your desk by 9.00am in Newcastle, I wouldn’t trust it. You could always drive and the reality is that most do.

Rural buses are a joke. Where I live the nearest bus stop is a a mile away and there are two busses to Hexham daily, But you couldn’t use them to commute because they’re only really suitable for a couple of hours shopping. Why are rural buses important? Well have you seen car insurance recently? It costs us £2k a year to insure our 18 year old on a 22 year old Polo worth £500. That’s the cheapest we could find. Why are there friends of his who don’t work in the rural villages? Because they can’t get to the jobs. There’s no transport.

This week County Durham was told that a £50m grant to help improve bus services in the area, to allow people to get to jobs, was being cancelled.

Lucky old Thames estuary. If I were one of Labour’s new MPs in the North East, I wouldn’t bother redecorating your London pad.