Northumberland is back in business, and the Conservative administration at County Hall has published its plan to make sure economic growth in the county benefits everyone.

This week Councillor Richard Wearmouth, a member of Peter Jackson’s cabinet with responsibility for Economic Growth outlined how the county can benefit from a number of key opportunities. Our county will receive a major boost from the Government’s North of Tyne Devolution Deal and The Borderlands Growth Deal. While negotiating the challenges posed by Brexit and competition from our neighbours north of the border and south of the Tyne, our plan will ensure that all Northumbrians can benefit from our commitment to economic growth.

The process has been underway for a little while within the Economic Development Team and we have now started discussions with local local councillors across the county. We will now present our plans to the county's five Local Area Councils where interested parties can give us their feedback.

The strategy will examine a whole range of issues including how we can help boost the number of small and medium size businesses scaling up, the best way to build on our success in sectors such as offshore energy, pharmaceutical, healthcare etc as well as identifying how we can bridge the skills gap that stop some residents taking advantage of the “more and better” jobs that are headed Northumberland’s way. 

In particular, we want to ensure that everyone stands to benefit from economic growth in Northumberland and that we focus on social mobility which has been woefully neglected by successive administrations in this county.
The world around us is changing fast and in the coming months we expect to make significant announcements about major investments into our county which is becoming recognised as a place where businesses want to establish themselves. 

We remain determined that as Northumberland goes from strength to strength the benefits are spread fairly to all parts of this great county.