A trip to Dubai is an invigorating experience which leaves you marvelling at man's creativity. I returned there last week, 14 months after my first visit.

The pace at which buildings have gone up is amazing.

Not surprisingly, people want to see the same transition from blueprint to building all over the North-East.

Planning decisions in Britain aren't made overnight and people often complain about inefficiency and bureaucracy. In the case of sites like Middlehaven, in Middlesbrough, and North Shore, in Stockton, I know such accusations would be grossly unfair.

Developers want sites which will maximise profit - hence the popularity of retail and housing development.

Councils and other agencies have to consider different factors. They have to strike a balance between office, retail, housing and leisure so that they have something which will bring long-term benefit to their community and which will stimulate sustained investment and regeneration.

Strategic planning is a critical factor. In our region it's the job of Government Office North East, and One NorthEast, the regional development agency of which I'm a board member.

I spoke about this in a debate organised by The Northern Echo at the Labour spring conference in Newcastle. The theme was "Life after the big NO". It posed the question: where does the region go after the public's rejection of a regional assembly?

People who have heard me speak know I have a lot to say and rarely use notes. In a short speech, it means a machine-gun delivery - a nightmare for journalists who use shorthand and don't have a script to check against.

The result was that mistakes crept into the report that appeared in Monday's Echo, so this is the perfect opportunity to put things right.

Politicians at local or national level don't run their organisation on a day-to-day basis. I don't do that in Middlesbrough and Tony Blair does not do it on the national stage.

Our job is to provide strategic direction and leadership. That is how we exert influence and that is what makes us accountable to the citizens who put us where we are.

In our region, Government Office North East and One NorthEast play a vital role in ensuring a co-ordinated approach to the efforts to revitalise our region. There is fierce competition for investment across Europe and there is no place for parochialism.

These bodies can be held to account, by government ministers, or in the case of One NorthEast, by board members. However, their role differs vastly from that of a directly-elected mayor or a council leader, who has a direct line of accountability to the citizens who elected them.

The no vote meant that one method of addressing this accountability - an elected regional assembly - won't happen. But there is still a need to increase the influence the region's citizens have on the key decisions which affect them.

If you put the nation's wealth on a balance sheet, I think you would find the North-East has contributed more to the pot than it has taken out. The people of the region have been let down by the people representing them, locally and nationally. We have not spoken loudly enough on their behalf, we have not spoken as one.

The opportunity for the North-East to generate wealth and investment has never been better. It is vital that politicians, MPs, mayors and council leaders make the region's voice heard.

Just as importantly, we must ensure that people influence how their communities are revitalised. Finding a lasting and credible method of making that happen is now our key task.

Published: 18/02/2005