THE town originally known as Mydilsburgh, now Middlesbrough, is sometimes referred to as the oldest new town.

Originally a Saxon settlement midway (Mydils) between the Christian centres of Durham and Whitby, the land was purchased in 1829 by a group of businessmen, led by Joseph Pease of Darlington, to become Port Darlington, to enable the export of coal.

Following the acquisition, a gridbased town was built and the railway expanded from Stockton. By 1861 the population had grown from 40 to 19,000, increasing by a further 21,000 in the next ten years, and is now 150,000.

This growth was due to natural resources such as coal and iron ore, and importantly the infrastructure – the port, the railway and housing.

More recently, our region has suffered from years of underinvestment in our infrastructure, and it is important that our new Government recognises that resolving this will help businesses grow and our economy recover.

The most obvious area, one which affects us all, is our road network. There are clear problems on the A19 both southbound into Tees Valley in the morning, but also around the Western Bypass and the Tyne Tunnel.

While the new Tyne Tunnel is welcome, it would have been of more benefit to North-East business if the planners had implemented plans for improving traffic flow at the roundabouts on the Northern side.

Less obvious is the development of new power sources. Be they local private power stations or offshore wind farms, access to the National Grid must be made simple.

In respect of the building of the latter, we must ensure that planning allows appropriate development – it would be a disaster for the region if, having lost our steel-making industry, we don’t get the opportunity to compete in this market.

And recent events have served only to underline how dependent we are upon effective international links, by both air and sea.

Our airports and ports must be given every opportunity to succeed and support our economy, or at the very least not hindered in their development plans.

While accepting that the public finances are not in a good shape, it is important that business is provided with the appropriate tools to take advantage of the global economic growth which appears to be slowly starting.

■ Chris Beaumont is NECC Tees Valley committee chairman and partner at Clive Owen and Co LLP.