McDonald and McEvoy lead debate at Echo's Cummins event

In the latest in a series of free live events run by BUSINESSiQ with The Northern Echo, they formed an expert panel at the Cummins plant in Darlington for the event: A Global Capital of Technology.

Taking part were Chris Hunter, Deputy CEO of Darlington Building Society, Sarah Slaven, Managing Director of Business Durham, Simon Whitaker, Assistant Director of Strategy and Insight at believe housing, Christopher Bowen, Managing Associate at Womble Bond Dickinson, Sophie Walton, of the Tees Valley Business Board, Emma Laidler, Test Technology Leader at Cummins, Phil Forster, Managing Director at Teesside International Airport, and Dan Kitchen, CEO of razorblue.

The event began with a keynote speech from Stockton North MP Chris McDonald.

He described Labour's industrial strategy as "the most important and crucial strategy in the entire election manifesto."

Mr McDonald said: "It's really entirely about this issue around the transition that we need to make in industry to new technology and how we in Teesside can benefit and I'm also concerned about what happens if we don't.

"When the General Election happened, there was a policy that was right at the heart of the Labour manifesto around industrial strategy, and it didn't actually get a lot of the airtime during the election campaign, but it was the most important and most crucial strategy in the manifesto for two reasons.

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"One is that it's the first time in more than 40 years that a party has come into government with a pledge to have an industrial strategy in the UK. And that's really strange, because every other country in Europe, and nearly all countries around the world, have industrial strategies and have had them as consistent long term vehicles for industry to invest over a long period of time.

"And the second one is that it was an election about public services, about the state of railways, hospitals, education and so on, and we need to invest to improve them, but we have very dire public finances, and the only way we're going to improve public services is if we can grow industry.

"So if the private sector invests and grows and creates wealth and jobs - and that's all of you people in the room - you create wealth in the economy, and that will enable us to get the investment that we need in public services and infrastructure in the UK. So I can't emphasize enough just how important industrial strategy is. It's important, it's urgent, but it's also very fragile as well. "

He likened current technological opportunities to the birth of the Stockton to Darlington railway.

Mr McDonald said: "Next year is the 200th anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington railway, and we'll have celebrations here in Darlington and in my constituency in Stockton North as well. Within a generation, we went from the world's first passenger railway to the railway station that's currently here in Darlington right now and that that level of change was incredible. If you lived through that, what on earth would you have thought of it?

"Well, the thing is, we are living through change just like that now, as companies digitise, invest in robotics or green increased productivity to unheard of levels.

"These are the changes we're going through, and it's going to require retraining of staff, but also attraction of investment as well. And the downside is, if we don't do that, then we lose out. So I think in my own constituency, in Billingham, we've got one of the biggest chemical clusters in the UK.

"It's a carbon intensive, oil dependent chemicals cluster, if it isn't renewed over the next generation, it will close. We will lose those jobs locally, but more importantly, the UK will lose that capability completely as well. "

Event host Mike Hughes, Business and Commercial Editor of the Northern Echo, asked Mr McDonald and Darlington MP Lola McEvoy for an update on efforts to save Newton Aycliffe's threatened Hitachi plant.

BUSINESSiQ at Cummins Picture: Sarah Caldecott (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Ms McEvoy said the new MPs were holding high level talks with Hitachi bosses and taking their concerns to Keir Starmer's Government.

She told delegates: "We've met as local MPs with Hitachi and visited the plant and heard from business leaders there and we have taken the points they have raised to Government.

"As MPs we are really keen to push as much as we can to make sure there is a sustainable future."

She had criticism of the previous Conservative Government's handling of the situation.

She added: " The key thing here is that this is avoidable and as much as some people don't want to hear about the last Government, this is an avoidable gap in orders.

"Had there been a decent industrial strategy we might not have been in this position.

"There is active negotiation going on with Government and, as you all know being business leaders, these are sensitive so we won't be revealing anything in the press. But I would just say we are pushing and doing everything we can as local MPs and also meeting with Hitachi as much as we can."

Sarah Slaven, of Business Durham, spoke of the cutting edge advances in the county and the importance of Sedgefield's North East Technology Park, known as NETPark.

She said: "What I see across County Durham is a huge amount of innovation and technological development going on.

"NETPark is really important to us. The businesses there are doing all sorts of world class innovation and things that are about R and D and commercialisation and really innovative solutions to the problems that we face in the world.

"But what I see, and what my team see, is that across a whole range of businesses in the county, there's innovation going on, technological development in companies from the very smallest to the big names.

"And I think I'm really optimistic for the future because I think we've got some great capabilities, a lot of which come from our industrial past."

The BUSINESSiQ panel at Cummins Picture: Sarah Caldecott (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

She spoke of Durham's continued progress in the space sector.

Ms Slaven said: "We started 10 years ago looking at satellite applications, and we have some funding through to create a North East Center of Excellence.

"I think at first, people thought 'you're doing, is this really a thing?' And it's taken 10 years to really understand and develop what the opportunity is within that sector.

"But space is a global market that effectively impacts everything we do on a daily basis, and we have some really great capabilities.

"And a lot of that is actually driven by expertise in our universities. I think we're really lucky in this region to have five really good universities. And actually, space is an example where all of the universities have some expertise in different aspects of the space sector that we can really capitalise on.

"Some of the academics at Durham University are working on the whole issue of space sustainability. So it's all very well putting all of these satellites and other things up there, but actually, before you know it, they're going to be space debris and that has an impact.

"We've got people at Durham University who are absolute experts in how you tackle that issue, so this region has got a huge amount to offer in that sector, and I think it's a really exciting opportunity for us."

Managing Director Phil Forster spoke of a bright future for Teesside Airport as it grows diverse revenue streams to bolster the business well beyond what passenger travel alone can accumulate.

He told the event: "I'll speak as it is, the airport's been left to rack and ruin for the last 15-20 years. It really staggered me, the amount of neglect that it had, but the huge opportunity it had as well.

"And a lot of that now comes down to what's been done in the past in terms of this region, but also, you look at the infrastructure, the surface access, the land that we have around it and now we have the free port status.

"So the big thing is, really, there will always still be this messaging where I'll be getting pushed from the Tees Valley Mayor who'll ask "how long till we announce flights to Tenerife? How long till we announce flights to Malaga and when can people fly to Alicante?"

"Yes, I want them, and I still want to do that, but that's not what's going to turn the airport around. It's about the business part. It's the sustainability side of things, and it's the cargo.

"If we had kept the business plan that was first published to say, "look, this will just be a passenger airport" then the airport wouldn't be here."

He outlined his vision for collaborations which will see the airport playing a growing part in the regional economy.

Phil Forster at the live event (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Mr Forster said: "What I love about this airport is the economic regeneration, the jobs, the investment, the tourism.

"The big thing for us is the jobs that we can create and the opportunities that come through the business park. We're anticipating around £450 million we can put into the economy over the next 10 years.

"We also have the north side of the airport where we have a big event coming next week. We've got Airborne Colours who are moving here, they're taking a hangar. We've also got Draken who are in discussion about expanding their presence and we've got Willis Lease Finance Corporation, who are not only here doing stuff at the airport, but - when we're speaking about collaboration - they're looking to put a sustainable aviation fuel plant on the Teesworks site."

Dan Kitchen, of IT services provider Razorblue Group, spoke of their growing involvement in cybersecurity.

He said: "Cybersecurity has been a thing for a long time and it's been something that large companies spend a lot of money on, but that's starting to filter down now.

"We're starting to see a lot more interest from our client base. We look after it for about 500 businesses.

"We're seeing interest particularly in 24/7 monitoring, incident response and we're growing our skills in that area.

"I'd like to think that we're going to grow our headcount quite considerably and this is a great region to be, to be growing those skills in. "

He said Razorblue was tackling a skills shortage by introducing apprenticeships.

Mr Kitchen said: "We have got some great universities in this area, great people with a great work ethic who want to come and join us on apprenticeships. So there's some really great opportunities.

Emma Laidler of Cummins welcomes guests to the live event (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

"We certainly do have skill challenges. There is a skill shortage and our way of resolving that is running our own apprenticeship schemes whereby, when we're taking in new recruits and we're training and educating them both in industry standard things, but also our particular ways of doing things now, our own methodologies.

"So I see that as an area that we think works pretty well. It's expensive because it takes a long time to get people to the skill level that you need, but it works. "

Sophie Laidler, of hosts Cummins, spoke of the ongoing work in the engineering giant's new powertrain test facility.

The £13m centre will enable development and testing of technologies across platforms including hydrogen and renewable gas.

The 8,000 sq ft Darlington centre, which was four years in the making, will allow Cummins to explore a wider range of power technologies, from the latest generation diesel, natural gas, and hydrogen-capable fuel agnostic combustion engine platforms to hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric powertrains.

Ms Laidler said: "Hydrogen presents a lot of challenges, it is a new fuel which isn't widely used but we are lucky here because a benefit of being in the North East is obviously the hydrogen hub up here, so that has given us business links and opportunities to talk to our MPs.

Plenty of networking at Cummins Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

"It is about ensuring you have a good network around you. Particularly when it is something new and challenging that you are working in, you need that network.

"The MPs are open to the fact we are looking at new fuel technologies and some of the challenges we face around regulations.

"Also in recent weeks we have had union officials in who are excited about what we are doing here and can see the benefit to the workforce in terms of sustainability and long term future."

Sophie Walton of the Tees Valley Business Board and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) spoke of the latter's invaluable regeneration work in the North East.

She said: "For those that don't know, CPI is a social enterprise, and we're a national organisation now, so we do a lot of work nationally and indeed internationally.

"But we were founded and born and bred right here in the North East, by One North East, the Regional Development Agency at the time. We've gone from a two man band 20 years ago to 750 employees, most of which are still in the North East.

"The North East is still our home, and our stomping ground, we've got our major campus up on NETPark, and it's been fantastic to be part of that growth journey.

"We've also got a major infrastructure in Darlington biologics facility, and it's great to see Darlington Central Park growing and starting that specialisation journey as well around biopharma and life sciences.

"And then our headquarters is in Wilton. When ICI went pop, CPI was part of that plan to try to regenerate the area and bring new businesses into the area.

"CPI, over that time period, has managed to unlock £3billion worth of private sector investment. If I just take Teesside, I think it's 90 businesses that we've collaborated with, £72million pounds with r&d projects.

"It's been exciting to be a part of that sort of story. "

Simon Whitaker of believe housing told how the housing crisis is threatening the levelling up target in the North East.

He said: "If you look at housing in this country in general, there are way too many people living in temporary accommodation.

"I've just been at a load of fringe events at the Labour conference, and 150,000 children across the United Kingdom living in temporary accommodation.

"In our region, in the North East, we have about 76,000 people living in temporary accommodation.

"And the reason, actually, that does affect everything we're talking about today is because these are exactly the people who leveling up is trying is trying to get to, trying to reach and there's absolutely no point, frankly, pouring money into health services to fix people who have to return to temporary damp, mouldy accommodation.

"There's absolutely no point in pouring money into a skills pipeline if the children who we're trying to educate are returning to a house where they're having to share their room with their parents, because that is the reality.

"They are not able to do the homework that they're set, so we have got to deal with the housing crisis, and in our region that means building more social, affordable homes.

"It's an absolute imperative, because without it, the sort of the foundations everybody needs in order to achieve growth and leveling up are not there."

Chris Hunter of the Darlington Building Society said the institution is trying to use tech to benefit its customers.

He said: "What we are trying to do is get mortgages out quicker to customers.

"That effectively creates more profits for the building society which can then be invested back into the local area.

"So what I mean by that is, we employ 200 people, there's probably about 150 different roles with those 200 people, which are highly skilled roles.

"So we need maths graduates, we need people working in customer service. But we also invest into local good causes, which do help the local area, things like the food bank in Darlington.

"We've also been here since 1856 and I think we're one of the few organisations that's still around from the 1800s in the local area alongside the railway.

"But that's testament to the fact that people always need housing.

People always need to save the future, and that's why we try and use tech to try and enable that."

Simon Whitaker speaks at the Cummins event Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Christopher Bowen of international law form Womble Bond Dickinson said collaboration was the key to success for the region.

He said: "I think one of the things that we have seen is how you can retain and scale and grow some of the opportunities that are in this region.

"It's about things like infrastructure and housing. If we get really good skilled workers, one of the only ways that we'll be able to keep them here and to grow the region is by being able to offer them good accommodation, being able to offer them good infrastructure, good broadband connection.

"So to me, it's a really key thing to combine all these different elements that we've discussed, because if you just focus on one thing or different things, but it's not combined, then you won't possibly get that snowball effect, and then maybe not get the growth that you'd hope for.

"But if things are combined, if we focus on clustering and collaboration that's really, really key. And just from this discussion today, you can see that there's a lot of collaboration in this region and that's really positive for the future."