At this time of year there are no shortage of events to attend but this week I did get the chance to attend one that could be more significant than many as it involved the launch of the Tees Valley Strategic Economic Plan for the Tees Valley Combined Authority. In a very crowded room at Blackwell Grange Hotel, Mayor David Budd, Chair of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, Paul Booth, Chair of the Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership and Lord Heseltine spoke eloquently about what working together has achieved so far for this region and what the new industrial strategy hopes to achieve. Regular readers of this blog will know that we, at Jacksons, believe passionately that this region needs to be proud of its achievements and that it should sell itself positively so we enjoyed an hour of presentations explaining what this region has achieved and what is on the horizon for its future. It was in itself very encouraging to see that so many business people from the region had taken the time to battle through the rain to attend this important event.
We were reminded that we are the region that was innovative enough to come up with both the round teabag and the safety match among other things and that since the authorities started to work together in 2011 there has been over £220m of investment into the region to deliver 11,620 jobs and £1.47billion of public/private investment. It is encouraging to see that the economic plan is intending to deliver an additional 25,000 jobs by 2026 along with an extra £2.8billion into the Tees Valley economy.
We can already see areas where there is investment and growth taking place including the proposed MGT plant at Teesport, the potash mine in North Yorkshire, which plans to export minerals through Teesside, and the plans of Peak Industries for minerals refining in the area.
As the first combined authority outside of London there will be many people watching this region and we will be able to demonstrate the strength of character and resource of the area to raise our profile in the country and the world as never before. We will be able to showcase our skills and enterprise as well as our beautiful countryside for leisure and tourism.
It is now for all of us to do our bit to help put these plans in place and to develop and promote this area. It is all really exciting and we should be looking forward to 2017 with much optimism. At Jacksons we are already looking at ensuring we have the right teams in place to do just this.
I wonder what this region will invent next and in 10 or 20 years’ time what new businesses will be known for. I am sure it will be something innovative and forward thinking.
