Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has opened the door for the creation of thousands of new jobs in the Tees Valley by backing a number of schemes including road improvement work which will lead to a significant investment.
Mayor Houchen has received a formal approach by an international company regarding a significant investment opportunity in the Tees Valley. The company and specific location of the development cannot be revealed at present due to a strict non-disclosure agreement.
The site in the Tees Valley is expected to be built and operational before September 2022, creating as many as 3,000 good quality local jobs for people in Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.
To secure the investment and deliver the jobs a number of road improvements are required beforehand, therefore Mayor Houchen has agreed to release £5.8 million to facilitate this work and help to spearhead the economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.
The interchange has already been identified as a capacity constraint by Highways England. The improvement work is part of a wider bid for Department for Transport funding, with an outline business case due to be submitted in January 2021.
To further strengthen Teesside’s position on the world stage, the Department for International Trade (DiT) is working around the world to highlight the opportunities in carbon fibre production in the region to attract international investors.
With the help of Teesside University, Sembcorp, CPI and DiT, the area is now being marketed to global businesses for large-scale manufacturing of carbon fibre for the UK’s automotive aerospace and renewables sector.
Alongside this, Tees Valley’s world-renowned bioscience cluster is also being marketed, emphasising the region’s key assets such as CPI, Fujifilm Diosynth and Teesside University’s National Horizons Centre, in an attempt to support the region’s clean energy ambitions.
Mayor Houchen said: “My plan for the economic recovery of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool following the coronavirus pandemic is a plan for jobs – creating good quality high skilled local jobs for local people.
“This investment opportunity would do exactly that – creating as many as 3,000 jobs, which is why I have agreed to invest this money on road improvements so we can open the door to this huge development coming to the region.
“There’s so many good things about our area to shout about, whether it be our world-leading research centres, top-quality manufacturing sites and unrivalled skill sets and expertise. By promoting these around the world, we can bring even more investment and create even more local jobs in our region.
“The last few months have been extremely difficult for everyone but we are on the comeback. We will make our region bigger, better and stronger than ever before by creating jobs for local people in not only high skilled areas, but in the industries of the future.”
