Before Storm Eunice decided to level a few things itself, a group of business leaders met in Jacksons’ boardroom to discuss the topic and ask what it meant to us and what we thought needed to be achieved. After the initial excitement of meeting in person and having breakfast was overcome, a lively discussion ensued on a range of aspects of the topic. We thought we would produce a summary of the discussion and viewpoints for anyone interested, so here goes:
There was a general consensus that levelling up resonates for our area and that in many important areas – especially for young people- our region has more challenges than others. The statistics on free school meals for example shows Tees Valley 8% higher than average for primary and over 9% for secondary. It was acknowledged that our particularly disadvantaged areas have significantly higher figures than this – the levelling up of opportunities for young people within Tees Valley itself has its complexities. We agreed the importance of schools and their ability to help their students see and experience the career opportunities local to them – and discussed the value of funding to support this.
There was confidence and excitement about the freeport and what this could do for the levelling up agenda and the potential with both this and the wider Teesworks site. We discussed the historical ‘Teesside pessimism’ and negative national coverage, but that Ben Houchen as Tees Valley mayor had worked hard to be a positive Ambassador for the area and that it was encouraging that sites like Teesworks could offer thousands of jobs for the future.
It was suggested that the region had suffered from government neglect over many years and that lack of investment had created a north/south divide. It was felt that the levelling up agenda needed to address investment in the region and that we were seeing a fairer share at the moment.
Concern was expressed that whilst the digital sector had had some major successes and that there were some brilliant companies in Tees Valley, now what we needed to work on was the start up sector, as well as scaling up, because we need a pipeline of new ideas and businesses.
The importance of Apprenticeships was highlighted – it was felt the business community needed to do more to assist here as we needed to manage the training of the employees we will need in the future and nurture homegrown talent. It was acknowledged some sectors were working together on this better than others and that there needed to be a more joined up approach between different education sectors and businesses etc. We should also acknowledge that everyone is different and appreciate the value of all job opportunities. We discussed the concept of the ‘ladder of opportunities’ – an area that prides itself on supporting those in lower skilled roles to have their best career chances possible.
We agreed that place marketing was important and that we needed to do more to sell the Tees Valley and the amazing opportunities and lifestyle choices which are here. It was pointed out that TVCA is currently co-ordinating place marketing with a creative team – the group looked forward to the output here.
The monies received from the Towns Fund to places in our region was appreciated as this enabled projects to be undertaken around housing, skills and mobility within the area. It was felt these could make a massive difference by providing the capital for local projects.
More work would be needed on transport both within the towns and between the towns of Tees Valley but also nationally. Additionally, the critical importance of digital connectivity was referred to – genuine concerns were expressed on the life chances of those in the area who are unable to access the internet for their personal and professional development.
Finally, we acknowledged that parts of the region still needed to address the issue of high crime rates.
In conclusion our group were very much in favour of the levelling up and were very positive about the timeliness of the levelling up agenda. They wanted to play their part to raise aspirations in the region and welcomed opportunities to discuss and collaborate.
