30 | Tees Business
Picture by Martin Walker
Tees mayor Ben Houchen chats with
Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry
on the developable land at the South Tees
Development Corporation site near Redcar.
INFANT
HERCULES
Womble Bond Dickinson managing associate
John Booth (pictured left) believes Teesside can once again
be an economic powerhouse for the North-East region…
I
t was a few years ago now that a
colleague, Tom Graham, who is Teesside
born and bred, first mentioned 'infant
Hercules' to me.
I too am a North-Easterner, having grown
up in County Durham, and now work and
practice in Newcastle at Womble Bond
Dickinson's largest of its network of 27
offices in locations across the UK and
the United States. However, it wasn't
something I had heard before.
I previously worked in the firm's Teesside
office for around six years before I relocated
to Newcastle. During that six-year period
I became much better acquainted with
Teesside, its history and the huge role
industry played, and continues to play, in
its economy and the lives of its tightly-knit
communities.
“This remarkable place, the youngest
child of England's enterprise, is an infant,
but if an infant, an infant Hercules”, is what
I now know William Gladstone said of
Middlesbrough in 1862 when the town was
at the heart of the industrial revolution.
Unfortunately, the prosperity of the
town and Teesside has taken a number of
knocks, most recently and notably with the
closure of the steelmaking plant at Redcar
by Thai-owned SSI after over 100 years of
production at a cost of roughly 2,000 jobs.
Anywhere would feel the consequences
of such a devastating blow, and a walk
through some of the most affected towns
or a review of government-published
statistics emphasises the difficulty the area
continues to face in picking up the pieces.
Hopefully, things are about to change.
Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley's elected
mayor, is pursuing an ambitious investment
and regeneration programme which,
as many will know, involves a plan to
completely reinvigorate the redundant steel
works that have been idle and decaying
since SSI went into liquidation.
We at Womble Bond Dickinson were
delighted to have been appointed to act for
the newly-created South Tees Development
Corporation in its acquisition of over half of
the area identified for regeneration.
The corporation, or STDC for short,
is a mayoral development corporation
established by statute with powers to
acquire, compulsorily if necessary, land for
investment and development.
STDC is the first corporation of its kind
established outside London, which is
noteworthy in itself considering the number
of other areas across the country looking
to secure inward investment, but most
importantly it has now acquired TATA's
land – we completed the deal on February
22 and, as a result, STDC now owns a site
which the mayor has highlighted previously
is not far from the size of Gibraltar.
The deal was complex and challenging,
but, by working with an excellent STDC
team, as well as the pro-active team
from TATA, we brought it to a successful
conclusion and very much look forward to
seeing what happens next.
This really could be the beginning of
something huge in terms of providing
jobs, prosperity and growth for a region
that deserves a big break; indeed, STDC
representatives are already talking to
several interested parties with a view to
reaching agreements to secure the first of
that inward investment.
We are extremely proud of what we
do on Teesside. We hope to continue our
relationship with STDC in the long-term, but
we also act for some of the region's most
important and high-profile businesses. We
are fortunate to count Sembcorp, Venator,
Cecil M Yuill Limited, Teesside University
and Middlesbrough College, amongst
many others, within our Teesside client
base and look forward to continuing our
active involvement as the only local truly full
service offering in providing the best quality
commercial advice for our clients as the
region takes its first steps to establishing
itself once again as an industrial and
economic Hercules.