North East mayor Kim McGuinness in Riyadh with Prime Minister Keir Starmer

The only mayor there

The week began with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a trade mission to Saudi Arabia, just a few days before the Gulf kingdom was confirmed as the host nation of the World Cup in 2034.

There he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss investment opportunities and economic collaboration. Significantly, the Prime Minister was accompanied in Riyadh by North East mayor Kim McGuinness - the only regional mayor invited to be part of the delegation.

The importance of her attendance should not be downplayed - it won’t simply have been because the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) already has a controlling interest in Newcastle United.

Sir Keir said: “I am determined to ensure international diplomacy drives local results, whether that is discussing how we can support regeneration in the UK or supporting business deals that create jobs – my international agenda starts at home.”

Graphene Innovation Manchester now have a deal with the Saudis to use its product in a major project, and it was also announced that an international institute for clean hydrogen will be set up, backed by a consortium of universities, including Newcastle.

I understand that this is far from the last investment and collaboration that will benefit our region.

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As one Line opens…

New Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was in the North East yesterday for the official opening of the Northumberland Line, a truly transformational project for the people and the prosperity of south east Northumberland.

Sunday will see the first passengers make the train journey between Ashington and Newcastle for 60 years when the line was closed as part of the now infamous Beaching cuts of 1964.

So far so good.

Later, the Minister, who took over from Louise Haigh two weeks ago, was asked about the reopening of another route axed by Beaching - the Leamside Line.

Reopening Leamside, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Ferryhill in County Durham, is important not just for the region but would increase capacity on the East Coast Main Line for trains between Aberdeen and London. So it has national importance too.

That is why The QT called it:

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, who was in attendance yesterday, has already committed £8 million to create a business case to bring the northern section of the line back into use.

Alexander told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I know mayor Kim McGuinness is working on plans for the Leamside Line. I need to look at all ideas and proposals in detail, and that is what we are doing going into the second phase of the spending review.

"The previous Government was writing cheques they knew they were never going to be able to cash. I think that is really corrosive for trust and I'm going to be honest with people."

A reading of that would be that it’s still all to play for, but our mayor will have to be at her persuasive best to get Government backing.

You can click on this button to read The QT article from March.

Leamside Line article

Teesside powers on

The world’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and storage is now ready to move from drawing board to construction.

Net Zero Teesside (NZT) Power, a joint venture between BP and Norwegian state energy company Equinor, has signed contracts worth £4bn with its supply chain. Construction is due to begin in the middle of next year..

The construction at the 150-acre site of the former Redcar steelworks is expected to create and support more than 3,000 jobs and then generate 1,000 jobs when operational in 2028.

It will proceed in tandem with the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), which has simultaneously entered the execution phase of its CO₂ transportation and storage infrastructure to serve three initial carbon capture projects on Teesside as part of the East Coast Cluster.

Once operational, the station could produce enough low-carbon power to meet the needs of more than a million homes.

The plans were drawn up and approved under a different government - not that you would have known that by the way Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the news: “Today’s investment is proof that this government is taking a different approach by putting growth first and investing in the industries of the future.”

Eyes & Ears is not a one-way conversation. I want to hear your thoughts on this or any of the articles in the newsletter.

School support system ‘broken’

A disturbing picture emerges from the latest survey from Schools North East, a registered charity and network of all 1150 schools in the region.

Almost all schools (94%) are seeing rising numbers of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and they say the system for supporting these young people is broken.

Special and Alternative Provision schools are working at capacity, and mainstream schools say they are having to create alternative learning places as a result.

Two thirds of schools (and my maths tells me that is more than 750 schools in this region) say that they do not have capacity and resources to adequately support SEND students. Meeting this challenge requires additional funding so that schools can employ sufficient numbers of qualified staff.

The report says the system needs wider reform with long waiting lists for mental health services, educational psychologists, and speech and language therapists.

Around the world in a home-made boat

Adam Waugh will set sail from Portugal. Image: The Emma Dawson Foundation

A Northumberland man is to sail solo around the world in a boat he made in his garden shed.

The BBC reports that Adam Wough from Bolam is one of 15 people worldwide taking part in the Mini Globe Race and will set off from Portugal on December 28 for a 14-month trip, sailing a distance of 28,000 nautical miles.

He is raising money for the Ella Dawson Foundation, a charity set up in memory of the Newcastle University student who died at the age of 24 in 2021 from an aggressive form of blood cancer.

Hospice staff face redundancy

Around 28 staff at St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham face redundancy as the charity struggles to cope with growing financial pressures.

St Cuthbert’s is far from alone. The boss of Marie Curie Hospice in Newcastle told ITV Tyne Tees this week that she could be forced to cut services including inpatient beds and staff over mounting financial strains.

Many hospices are experiencing funding deficits due to a combination of factors, including rising costs, inflation, and an increased reliance on charitable donations. St Cuthbert's, for instance, is struggling with a £3.8 million funding gap.

Hospice UK has reported that the sector is facing a collective deficit of £77 million for the financial year 2023-24.

This financial strain is causing many hospices to consider reducing vital services, which could have devastating consequences for patients, their families, and the communities they serve.

Council cuts £21m from budget

Council tax bills in Newcastle are to rise by 2.99% and a 2% increase in the adult social care precept will be applied as the council looks to balance its books.

Budget cuts of more than £21 million were announced, including the loss of 40 jobs and reducing the amount spent on placements at privately-run children’s care homes. A five-week public consultation period has now begun.

The leader of Northumberland County Council, meanwhile, has repeated warnings that the local authority's current financial position is unsustainable. Rising costs for children and adults' care mean the council is facing an overspend of just under £6 million by the end of the year.

Councillor Glen Sanderson said more money was needed from the Government if services were to continue.

The subject of council finances and the growing cost of the statutory obligations they have to meet is something that was covered extensively in The QT. See Time to stop blaming ‘the council’ from The QT Vaults at the end of this newsletter.

Corden for South Shields

Gavin and Stacey stars Ruth Jones and James Corden

He’ll be on the airwaves and our TV screens this festive period, but James Corden is coming to the North East in person in the New Year.

Gavin and Stacey star Corden is speaking at the annual South Shields Lecture at Harton Academy on January 25 as a guest of David Miliband, who said: “I promised that the South Shields Lecture would bring global talent to South Shields. After Hillary Clinton’s appearance in 2022, I am thrilled that James Corden is bringing great British talent to South Shields.

The cast of Gavin and Stacey are taking over Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 breakfast show on Monday December 23, two days before the final episode of the series is aired on Christmas Day.

Reduction in bus fare cap

Bus fares in the North East are to be capped at £2.50 per journey from January, a saving of 50p on the Government’s recently-announced figure of £3. The initiative, announced by mayor Kim McGuinness, also preserves the £1 flat fare for passengers 21 and under.

Job cuts at university

Teesside University is looking for 27 academic staff to take voluntary redundancy after student numbers fell in some degree courses due to new visa rules introduced at the start of the year.

A university spokesperson said that despite its "robust financial position" it was working to "mitigate against the increasingly challenging financial context".

"We are reviewing our operating models and expenditure, identifying efficiencies and ensuring we continue to deliver value for money. This includes the option of voluntary redundancy in a small number of academic areas, where student numbers have declined."

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Tax office staff to strike

HMRC staff at Benton Park View in Newcastle have voted to go on strike. More than 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will take part in eight weeks of industrial action from December 23 to February 14. This strike is in protest over the dismissal of three union representatives earlier this year.

Newspapers on the wanted list

Regional newspapers the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette could soon have new owners. The board of National World, which also publishes The Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman, have said they are ”minded to recommend” to shareholders an improved offer from Irish company Media Concierge, which already owns a 28% stake.

Media Concierge owner Malcolm Denmark and National World Executive Chair David Montgomery have had something of a locking of horns recently and the two companies have agreed to a temporary halt in legal proceedings related to disputed invoices.

Switch to Reform

The Conservative councillor who came second to Labour’s Joy Allen in May’s Durham Police and Crime Commissioner election has announced his defection to Reform UK.

In a social media post, Robert Potts, who was elected to the Evenwood ward near Bishop Auckland in 2021, said he was proud to represent Reform as their first ever Durham county councillor.

Business bites

Danish renewables firm Ørsted has awarded Tyneside-based Smulders, along with York-based Severfield, the contract to supply a large proportion of secondary structures for the Hornsea 3 wind farm.

JDR Cables, which is constructing a major factory in Northumberland, has won the array cable testing and termination work on the project. Each contract is worth between £75m and £100m.

Wordnerds, the Gateshead-based AI software specialist, has secured £1.6 million in fresh funding. This investment will help them transform how businesses analyse customer feedback.

North East insurance broker Lycetts has acquired Cheviot Insurance Services, a Newcastle-based company known for its personalised service and strong community ties.

Longbenton-based Crystal & Son, which provides a range of fundraising products to clubs and bingo halls, has been bought by Leeds company Dransfield Novelty Company - the largest British-owned UK supplier of gaming machines and entertainment products to pubs and clubs - for an undisclosed sum.

THE WIDER VIEW

National Health (and Care) Service

The Local Government Association has told the Government it is essential that action on adult social care forms a core part of the 10-year plan for the NHS.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting launched a consultation in October, and the Department for Health and Social Care said that the responses will shape plans to fix the "broken" health service.

The LGA has submitted proposals to the Government focusing on the importance of social care to the wider NHS challenge and said it was important that social care was “not left behind again”.

A survey early last month showed that 72 per cent of councils overspent on their adult social care budgets in 2023-24.

Councillor David Fothergill, Chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, told PoliticsHome: “It’s good to see the NHS getting a long-term plan, but adult social care needs the same level of focus and commitment at the top of government.

“A plan for social care reform isn’t just about funding — it’s about thinking through how the government works with the public, private and voluntary sectors, the workforce and — crucially — people drawing on care and support, to codesign a new system that helps people live independent, fulfilling lives."

Brexit song and dance

Not sure that the music industry was uppermost in anyone’s minds when they voted in the 2016 European referendum.

In a week when Chancellor Rachel Reeves signalled a wider reset of relations with the EU when she met European finance ministers in Brussels, the independent, all-party pressure group European Movement UK wants us to make a song and dance (not literally) about the impact Brexit has had on musicians.

Among the stats: 4 in 5 musicians have lost work because of Brexit; the average musician has lost £11,545 of their income; the cost of touring has gone up by an average of £1500; 1 in 5 are now thinking of quitting music for good; the number of European artists performing in the UK is down by 40%, while offers for British artists in Europe are down 63%.

Their UK Music Industry Unwrapped can be read (and heard) here and they want the petition to be shared far and wide.

Backing for devolution

People living in areas with greater devolution are more confident in their mayors and the model of devolution as a whole, according to a new report from the think tank Labour Together.

Around 30 per cent of those polled believe devolution has gone well so far. This confidence in devolution rose to 34 per cent in the areas with the most advanced settlements: Greater Manchester, West Midlands and London.

In the 12 areas which already have mayors, around a third of people thought that their mayor was performing well, however, this confidence in mayors rose to 38 per cent in the areas with the most advanced devolution settlements, such as the North East.

A period comedy drama

I suspect, sadly (for him), that this social media exchange is a very good example of how Lee Anderson’s brain is wired.

The reaction to the Reform MP’s post is everything you (but not him) would expect. This is just one…

Location, location, location

The Times continues to have the best letters pages. This one caught my eye this week:

Peter Johnson: “In all the debate about housing, we have heard very little about building quality, smaller and well-equipped homes for older people who want to downsize. Such homes need to be built within walking reach of shops and services, not somewhere isolated out in the country, and to offer a basic warden system.

“Plush, so-called retirement villages are simply too expensive for many of us. The building of such homes would release thousands of larger properties, ideal for young families.”

THE QT VAULTS

There are hundreds of articles in The QT’s archives - quality, independent journalism that we hope to bring back in 2025. In the meantime, here are two that I have selected for you this week.

The first is from February and is an in-depth look at council finances and the extreme pressures the local authorities have to work under.

Given the news items from the councils in Newcastle and Northumberland and the LGA earlier in this newsletter, I thought it an appropriate week to republish this. You often hear “the council” getting blamed for a whole range of things, so we tried to bring some balance, context and perspective into the conversation.

Time to stop blaming ‘the council’

Read the full story

In May, Harry Pearson gave a moving account on the impact dementia was having on those closest to him. I can’t recommend this piece of writing highly enough.

If you didn't laugh, you'd cry'

Read the full story

The Source NE

Eyes & Ears 13.12.24