More city centre jobs
The Department for Work and Pensions is to open a massive service and support centre in the heart of Newcastle, bringing hundreds of jobs to the city centre, it was announced yesterday.
The DWP will be the second Government department to move into the Pilgrim Street regeneration area with HMRC set to relocate 9,000 staff to Pilgrim’s Quarter. Work on that building is nearing completion and is scheduled to be handed over for tenant fit-out in October
The DWP has agreed to take more than 170,000 sq ft over nine storeys of the Pilgrim Place 1 building, with the potential to accommodate 1700 staff. Two tower cranes recently arrived on site to work on the construction of Pilgrim Place 1 and 2, adjacent to the Bank House building, which kick-started the regeneration and is now 75% let.
Meanwhile, the conversion of the former fire station and adjoining police station into a boutique hotel, is scheduled to be completed in April.
Ready for business
North East Chamber of Commerce chief executive John McCabe has been named chair of the North East Combined Authority’s newly formed Business and Economy Board. Emily Cox, group ambassador for the North at Lloyds Banking Group, is vice-chair.
The board will provide strategic advice to mayor Kim McGuinness and the combined authority as they implement the Local Growth Plan.
John said: “I’m looking forward to working with the mayor, local authority leaders and their teams to ensure the huge benefits of devolution are felt by people and businesses across our region.
“We want to establish the North East as the region of real opportunity, where there is no limit on ambition and where businesses of all sizes and sectors can thrive. Now is the time to act differently and think bigger, to reset the relationship between politics, local government and business. That’s how we’ll deliver for the North East.”
Talking of thinking bigger…
The reopening of the 21-mile long Leamside Line would provide the North East with a massive regeneration opportunity that involves inward investment, skills and employability, stimulating the visitor economy, tackling economic inactivity, and housing - with the potential to build a new town.
The QT highlighted the potential of the Leamside Line in a series of articles last year, including this one from March. Now the North East Combined Authority have agreed to allocate up to £500,000 to fund the development of an investment strategy for towns and villages along the full length of the line.
Proposals are to be drawn up to explore how the Leamside Investment Corridor could transform communities such as Washington North, Penshaw, West Rainton, Ferryhill and Fencehouses by acting as a catalyst for new houses and jobs to spring up around vastly-improved transport links.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week highlighted the need to go "further and faster" to deliver growth and mentioned several key initiatives, including overhauling the planning system, boosting transport investment, encouraging trade and supporting local businesses.
That’s a full house for the Leamside Line then.
The cuts continue
Another week - and more grim news from the university sector. Durham University is looking to save up to £20 million over the next two years.
Half of that figure is expected to come through plans to cut around 200 professional services jobs this year. A similar sum needs to be saved next year, split between academic and non-academic staff, and the university is hoping to achieve the savings through voluntary job losses.
Cardiff University plans to make up to 400 academic staff redundant as it grapples with a £31 million funding black hole. It is believed to be the largest number of proposed job cuts announced by an elite Russell Group institution to date, making up around seven per cent of staff.
Newcastle University unveiled plans last week to let go around 300 full-time jobs as part of staffing cuts worth £20 million. It has now told staff to cut down on research time that is not directly supported by external funding.
A Newcastle academic told Times Higher Education: “If you can only work on research if you’re lucky enough to be funded with an external grant – and you might as well buy a lottery ticket as apply for a grant these days – it will fundamentally change what we are as a university.”
As many as 72 per cent of universities in England are expected to slump into a deficit this year, according to the Office for Students, the higher education regulator.
The numbers aren’t good
One in three children in the North East are living in poverty, according to the Joseph Roundtree Foundation’s report UK Poverty 2025.
The foundation warned that economic growth alone will not dent the “shameful” levels of poverty and called for the two-child benefit limit to be scrapped and a new protected minimum amount of support below Universal Credit’s current basic rate.
On average, the number of children living in poverty in the region is 33.9% but the highest rates are in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (43%); South Shields (36%); and Newcastle Central and West (35%).
Child poverty is a key issue for North East mayor Kim McGuinness. Beth Farhat, Chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said: "Whilst there is real, cross-sector determination across our region to do what it takes to tackle child poverty, that has to be underpinned by meaningful national action if we are to have a chance of shifting the dial on this issue with the urgency it requires.”
QT columnist Arlen Pettitt has more in his latest Wor Room newsletter and he spotted this paragraph in the JRF report: “Data for the North East should be treated with caution; the year-on-year percentage point change in poverty rates for this region is over four times the change for other regions and nations on average. We will continue to monitor the trajectory of poverty rates by region in the coming years.”
Arlen, however, was able to cut through the doubts over the actual numbers: “Things are difficult and don’t feel like they are getting better.”
A quick word
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has postponed the annual price increases for Metro fares from April until July because of disruption and performance issues. Forestry England has temporarily shut all footpaths and mountain bike routes in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, after last Friday's Storm Eowyn. More than 150 trees are blocking the Lakeside Way, a 26-mile path which circles the reservoir. The National Trust said 10,000 trees were lost during the storm including a 45-foot tree at Cragside which was 150 years old. Wallington lost 200-year-old beeches that were part of the original garden designs. Newcastle Eagles won their first major trophy in four years when they clinched their eighth Super League Basketball Trophy title with a 97-78 victory against Bristol Flyers in the final at Birmingham's Utilita Arena. Lumiere, Durham’s biennial festival of light-based art, will take place this year from November 13 to 15. David Whetstone has all the details on the Cultured. North East newsletter. Newcastle’s Discovery Museum has been awarded £200,000 by the Woolfson Foundation to transform the Working Lives gallery into an exhibition space which will showcase stories of the region. It will also contribute towards the creation of a new under 5s area to replace the popular Play Tyne space.
Primed for take-off
Amazon has announced plans to launch its first UK drone delivery service, called Prime Air, from its Darlington fulfilment centre. The company is currently seeking planning permission and clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Darlington Borough Council's deputy leader Chris McEwan said there was a "long journey to travel" but described proposals as "quite interesting and exciting".
In the mix
Sam Fender and former Little Mix singer Jade Thirwall have both received two nominations for this year’s Brit Awards. Sam has been nominated for Artist of the Year and Best Alternative or Rock Act. Jade is up for Best Pop Act and Song of the Year for her hit Angel Of My Dreams.
Business bites
Offshore services firm Tekmar has won a £5m contract to supply an undisclosed client with its flagship Generation 10 cable protection system for a UK offshore wind farm. Teesside International Airport has signed a contract with North East firm 121 Business Links to provide 100% renewable energy - a major step towards their goal of becoming the UK's first operationally net zero airport by 2030. BBC Dragon Sara Davies paid £425k to bring the company she founded, Crafters Companion, out of administration. The owners had debts of £16.7m when it collapsed. Revenue fell for the second year in a row at Newcastle-based international radiator company Stelrad but the company described itself as strong in a subdued market. Adjusted operating profit is expected to be up 7.5% to £31.5m. Engineering solutions firm Tulway has expanded its Middlesbrough operation by opening a new 70,000 sq ft site which will create around 50 jobs. Newcastle music business JG Windows, which was forced into liquidation in November after trading for 116 years, had debts of nearly £1m, according to new documents.
THE WIDER VIEW
Happy anniversary
It is exactly five years ago today since Britain’s formal withdrawal from the European Union. Recent polls indicate that only 30% of Britons now believe leaving the EU was the right decision, while 55% consider it wrong - the lowest approval rating since the 2016 referendum.
Furthermore, 62% of respondents feel that Brexit has been more of a failure than a success, with only 11% viewing it positively. Even among those who voted to leave, 32% acknowledge Brexit's shortcomings, though 66% still stand by their original choice.
Lord Alan Sugar didn’t hold back on his thoughts in an interview with the BBC this week.
Nicholas
Free news - read all about it
To pay or not to pay, that is the question. For news that is.
It’s a subject close to my heart and I raise it this week because the Public Interest News Foundation has released a report that says Google should pay news providers in the UK £2.2bn for their contribution to their search platform in 2023 alone.
They have a point. Maybe not one that big, but it’s a decent place to begin negotiations.
The decline of the UK regional press has been inversely proportional to the rise of global tech giants operating in the UK media market. In 2007, magazines and newspapers secured £7.1bn of the £17bn spent on advertising in this country.
In 2022, the total ad spend had doubled to £35bn - but all national, regional and magazine titles (print and online) made only £2bn out of this - less than a fifth of what they were making in 2007. Their slice of the advertising pie had gone from 39% to 6% - while tech giants such as Google, who don’t pay content creators, have been feasting on the bulk of it.
Media companies have had to cut costs as they continue to chase the click currency and it is estimated that the number of regional journalists in print and online has dropped from 13,000 to 4,000 in the last 20 years or so. What that’s done to the quality of news we get is a subjective point.
You get what you pay for - or don’t pay for - is something that not just Google should bear in mind.
THE QT VAULTS
Sometimes you read a story and think that can’t be true. This is one of them. Tony Henderson recounts the tale of a Tyneside airman who spent the Second World War carrying out a series of audacious PoW escapes. I could tell you more - but you wouldn’t believe me!
Another great issue. I prefer the Eyes and Ears format to the original QT. More succinct but with links to further reading. It feels more manageable. And of course great cartoons from Nicholas. Always a winner!