Ambitious Geordies go for growth

Tyne and Wear identifies one of the UK’s major urban areas, consisting of five unitary authorities working together to create a joint, as well as their own individual, future. Newcastle and Gateshead very much form the core of the conurbation

You might say the River Tyne once separated Newcastle from its neighbour Gateshead, but nowadays it’s rather more the case that they are bound in union by the waters that flow between them.

Many bridges straddle the Tyne; physical manifestations of the urban convergence fuelled by the powerhouse of industry that the area was once renowned for the world over and which gave rise to one of the UK’s major conurbations. Tangible expressions of urban union those bridges may be, but just as much are they a symbolic linkage for the administrative union that came about in 1974 when the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear was created.

The territory established around the mouths of the Tyne and Wear rivers was carved out of Northumberland and County Durham and comprised the metropolitan boroughs of City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, City of Sunderland, Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. These latter bodies exist today as unitary authorities; the county council was abolished in 1986, though it continues to exist in law and as a defined geographic frame of reference.

Historically, Newcastle-upon-Tyne was part of the ancient county of Northumberland while Gateshead was part of County Durham and the Tyne marked the border between these two territories. Industrialisation has very much brought the two together, as it has the wider sub-region, and nowadays Newcastle and Gateshead are very much at the core of Tyne and Wear.

Industry remains important to the sub-region’s economy, but of course it is not the dominant force it once was, as the region’s economy has sought to diversify in the wake of a painful restructuring and globalisation of manufacturing industries. Newcastle, for example, was historically known for ship-building, port related heavy industries and manufacturing, whereas Sunderland was a centre for the automotive industry. Service and financial industries now enjoy the lion’s share of economic activity, though tourism and cultural activities have increased their importance to the sub-region; a story familiar to many of Britain’s former industrial heartlands.

The dissolution of the old county council as a functioning body may have left the unitary authorities to go it alone but they still work together and Newcastle and G ateshead have developed a close working relationship as befits their proximity.

Last month, the two authorities launched an ambitious blueprint for growth; a plan not just for Newcastle and Gateshead but for the wider conurbation to drive forward with its social, economic and physical development and keep the sub-region competitive.

The Newcastle Gateshead One Core Strategy and the Urban Core Area Action Plan were developed jointly by the two authorities and are currently out for consultation. The documents present strategies for ensuring new developments will allow the area to attract new jobs and opportunities, boost the population, and also protect regeneration and the natural environment.

The plan includes a large-scale review of land throughout Gateshead and Newcastle to identify areas suitable for employment and housing uses. Previous studies have shown that not enough land has been allocated for these uses. The idea is that the blueprint will give both councils better control over the management of green belt land and heritage sites to ensure that piecemeal development doesn’t “eat into the most valuable parts” of green and open spaces. The strategy envisages large-scale and high-quality redevelopment in various neighbourhoods as well as the centres of Newcastle
and Gateshead.

“The Government’s changes mean local authorities are being left wide open to all types of development unless they have a policy in place to cover an area,” said Councillor Henri M urison, N ewcastle City Council’s cabinet member for quality of life. “Our core strategy will try and avoid unrestrained development which could seriously harm Newcastle/Gateshead. This document aims to
improve the quality of life of Gateshead and Newcastle residents so it will be part of an intensive dialogue with the public through our Let’s Talk programme to make sure in the coming decades that new homes are built in the right places, not the wrong ones.”

Gateshead’s council leader, Councillor Mick Henry added: “A growing population is vital to the future sustainability of Gateshead and Newcastle. To compete with other areas in the country and to maintain and enhance our current quality of life, we must be able to keep pace with the growth of
other major centres. This will make our area more attractive to businesses and investors.

“The prospect of falling behind competing areas could have significant impacts on key services, facilities and transport links and other vital aspects of everyday life. In difficult financial times like this, it is ever more important to lay the foundations for future prosperity and this strategy does just that. I t’s important that local residents have the opportunity for their thoughts to be a key part of the final version.”

Urban and economic convergence might suggest that Gateshead faces the prospect of becoming what Salford is to Manchester – overshadowed by its neighbour if not actually subsumed – but then there is no ‘Greater Newcastle’to lay claim to and divest neighbours of their identities on the national stage.
In any case, Gateshead has its own national icons, the Antony Gormley statue The Angel of the North being one of them, and these help to instil a distinct presence in public consciousness.

Gateshead certainly has no intention of relinquishing its own ambitions and remains focused on the future on its own terms. One of the ways it is looking to the future might not bring any obvious immediate benefits in terms of regeneration and the economy, but nevertheless it will bring a certain
prestige – if it gains the accolade. Earlier this year, Gateshead launched its bid to become a city.

“Gateshead is a place we can be proud of – we have fantastic assets and a remarkable history. W e believe we are a city in all but name,” said Henry at the launch of the bid.

The government competition was launched earlier this year to bestow city status as part of the celebrations of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 2012. Gateshead isn’t the only contender, of course; places such as Bolton, Bournemouth, Colchester, Doncaster, Dudley, Middlesbrough, Stockport and
Wrexham, among others, all have set their sights on becoming a Jubilee city.

“Gateshead is an ambitious and forward-looking place and in difficult economic times it’s totally appropriate that we look to an inspiring goal,” Henry added. “The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the building of Team Valley Trading Estate, Britain’s first purpose-built industrial and trading centre. Around 50 years later, E urope’s largest shopping and leisure complex – Metrocentre – was created here during the 1980s. Now we are again responding to a challenge in a positive way.”

The city-to-be (if it proves so fortunate) remains a provider of council housing, albeit through the medium of its ALMO The Gateshead Housing Company, which successfully delivered over £300 million of improvements to the council’s 21,000 or so homes. With the Decent Homes era done and dusted, however, the council is now considering the ALMO ’s future.

Quite how that will pan out is still under review and subsequent consultation, but in its possession of an ALMO , G ateshead reflects the wider Tyne and Wear: the ALMO movement has a strong presence in the region. Sister management companies are Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), South Tyneside Homes (STH), and North Tyneside Homes (NTH). Sunderland, however, took the stock transfer route in 2001, when the city’s tenants voted to transfer the council’s 36,356 homes to Gentoo (Sunderland Housing Group as it was then).

The individual authorities are clearly ploughing their own furrows of growth, development and regeneration, building on the legacies of their individual histories, but they have also demonstrated a collective confidence in their futures together.