Project delivery is in our DNA – that’ s the Tees Valley message from Stockton North MP and minister for industry Chris McDonald.
How Teesside’ s industrial heritage can be its greatest advantage in creating the industries, jobs and investment of tomorrow
We know how to build
Stockton North MP Chris McDonald( Labour), the government’ s minister for industry, on how a new generation of world-leading industries is proving the Tees region’ s greatest industrial days are ahead of us …
In 2015, the Redcar Blast Furnace fell silent.
For people outside our region, this may have looked like the end of the story. For those of us living and working on Teesside, it was like a wound. It’ s not just the loss of jobs, though that mattered enormously, but a loss of confidence and pride. It was another sign that the country had become too comfortable watching heavy industry disappear from places that had once powered the nation.
I have never accepted that decline is inevitable. And neither has Teesside.
Teesside was built by people who make things: steel, chemicals, shipbuilding, engineering, energy. Ours is a region of builders, makers and problem-solvers. We have the skills, the land, the raw materials, the infrastructure and the industrial culture that has had great nations watch with envy. What we needed was not sympathy. We needed belief, backing and a plan. That is beginning to happen now. Across Teesside, new industries are coming through at a scale not seen for decades. Net Zero Teesside is moving forward with one of the biggest carbon capture projects in the world. Alfanar’ s Lighthouse Green Fuels project is set to make sustainable aviation fuel here in Billingham. Fujifilm has already invested more than £ 450m, building one of the most advanced life sciences and biomanufacturing sites anywhere in Europe. Tees Valley Lithium will be one of a new cluster in critical minerals. We are seeing real momentum too in hydrogen, offshore wind, nuclear and clean power.
This is not about chasing headlines or gambling on fashionable sectors. It is about reindustrialising a region that was always meant to build the future.
The real strength of Teesside is not just in the projects themselves. It is in the place that delivers them.
It is in the contractors, fabricators, engineers, logistics firms, training providers and skilled trades that turn plans on paper into real industry on the ground. It is in the
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