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North East England - Open for Business

North East England Stand Brochure.indd 1 03/07/2014 18:51

North East England has innovation in its DNA. Home to world-leading advanced manufacturers; a life science and healthcare sector that is truly pioneering; a hotbed of digital and creative talent that is putting the area on the map; and the natural assets, infrastructure and skills to really shine as a place for renewable energy and offshore, the North East really is carving out a reputation nationally and internationally as a place to do business. Team all of this with an enviable financial, professional and business services sector that has attracted corporations from around the world; innovative minds and hardworking hands that are powering the area’s development - and doing it at a relatively low cost compared with other areas of the country; and the world-class universities we have on the doorstep; and it is easy to see why the area is attracting more and more private sector investment.

North East England truly is a vibrant and varied business base, with a population of two million people, and superb global and UK connectivity, supported by the area’s excellent transport links to Britain’s capital cities, with London under three hours’ commute away; its international airport, Newcastle, which handles over four million passengers a year and enjoys direct access to hub airports such as London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Dubai; great road links with the A19 and A1 linking the area to other key business locations across the country; the Tyne and Wear Metro system which carries 40 million people every year and links together major transport hubs with people and businesses.

Invest North East England acts on behalf of the seven councils which serve the North East - County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland. Working together, alongside private sector partners, the area is really playing to its strengths, offering a one-stop-shop that makes it easier to do business with this great part of the world.


Advanced Manufacturing | Engineering | Automotive | Rail

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Advanced Manufacturing | Engineering | Automotive | RailManufacturing is continuing to breathe new life into the region’s economy, as the North East perpetually makes a name for itself as a high value manufacturing and engineering powerhouse. Home to giants, like Nissan, Hitachi, Komatsu, Gestamp Tallent, Nestle and Caterpillar, the area’s booming manufacturing community is pumping more than £7.5billion into the North East economy and that of neighbouring Tees Valley, with some 60,000 people working in the engineering sector in the North East.

The biggest component of the sector is automotive manufacturing where, in just 30 years, the region has gone from a standing start to being the number one car producing region in the UK, home to the UK’s largest and most productive car plant ever, and an unrivalled supply chain. The region has also attracted other industries linked to advanced engineering, such as aerospace and defence, and is emerging as a leader in low carbon vehicles and rail engineering.

The region has a proven ability to attract, retain and grow inward investment, with companies taking advantage of the unique combination of locational advantages and great support. Consistently, the area has proven it has the flexible, committed workforce – possessing the right skills and ingenuity - to meet the needs of industry, and continuously improving, with labour productivity (GVA per hour worked) growing at the fastest rate in the country. This is underpinned by physical infrastructure to facilitate further investment and increasing emphasis on innovation, with the education sector coming together with industry to ensure the region is equipped with the minds and skills to power ongoing growth in the field. Most recently, the region welcomed the Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation (SASMI), a world-class learning facility for low carbon vehicle manufacture. And as home to one of only seven ‘High Value Manufacturing’ catapult centres and the National Centre for Printed Electronics, the region has the skills, people and support systems to sustain its growth in this field.

Thanks to this sector, the North East is the only region in the country with a positive balance of trade and the area looks set to build on this success with long-term plans for the addition of an International Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sunderland and South Tyneside bringing a predicted £295million in private sector investment and the creation of over 5,200 new high value jobs.

Other key developments include Turbine Business Park in Sunderland - a 22 hectare site benefiting from Enterprise Zone tax advantages, the 40 hectare Merchant Park development at Newton Aycliffe, which has already secured Hitachi Rail as a key occupier and the 22 hectare Hawthorn Industrial Park in County Durham, a newly reclaimed site that can accommodate large floor-plate developments. The Future Technology Centre in Sunderland, is also putting the region at the forefront of technological innovation in the field of low carbon vehicle manufacture, offering a unique combination of offices, research and development space, manufacturing facilities, training and classroom space as well as proximity to a dedicated LCV performance test track supported by a complete range of charging infrastructure. And with an established community of manufacturing businesses, Team Valley in Gateshead offers an abundance of space for investors, with a significant land bank and a variety of buildings available for immediate occupation. The site is already home to over 700 businesses, employing over 20,000 people across a range of sectors including high end manufacturing.


Subsea | Oil and Gas | New and Renewables | Offshore | Marine

Subsea | Oil and Gas | New and Renewables | Offshore | MarineNorth East England is a gateway to marine related industries. With a particular strength in subsea, and 50 supply chain companies generating a turnover of £1 billion a year and supporting more than 10,000 jobs, the North East really is making waves on a worldwide stage.

Among the industry leaders based here are Siemens, Vattenfall Wind Energy, Liebherr, Maersk Training, Duco, Bridon, Samsung Heavy Industries, A&P Tyne, Doosan Babcock Energy, SMD, Technip, GE Wellstream and BEL. And with a wide variety of riverside locations available, including over 400 acres of deep water development land, much of which benefits from Enterprise Zone status, teamed with ready-made infrastructure – from deep water quays, heavy load out pads and heavy lift cranes - to help companies establish their presence here quickly, the region really is an attractive proposition for investors.

There are four active industrial-scale port operators – Blyth, Seaham, Sunderland and Tyne - all highly skilled in supporting offshore projects and able to accommodate over 80 per cent of the world’s offshore vessels. And the area has a wider network of organisations to support the growth of the sector, with a dedicated marine school which enjoys a worldwide reputation for outstanding maritime training and groups like NOF Energy, which works on behalf of the offshore renewables industry to identify global opportunities for its 420 members; Energi Coast, the representative group for the region’s offshore renewables sector; Subsea North East, the advocacy group for area’s subsea sector; and the National Centre for Subsea and Offshore Engineering, led by Newcastle University as part of a major drive to develop new materials and technologies to explore the world’s oceans.

Add to this the fact that the area has been identified by Government as one of only six Centres for Offshore Renewable Engineering (CORE), meaning businesses here receive the most comprehensive support possible, and the case for the North East really is compelling. The region’s location also gives the shortest access to two of the UK’s biggest planned offshore wind farms: Dogger Bank and the Moray Firth, something that is complemented by the presence of Northumberland-based Narec (National Renewable Energy Centre), a renewables testing facility with one of the world’s largest blade testing facilities. The addition of the Neptune Centre, a research and development hub for subsea and offshore engineering in 2015, will further strengthen the area’s offer.

And completing the North East’s offer is a ready workforce, with the skills to drive the development of the sector. Over one million people live within a 30 minute commute of the key riverside employment sites, with salary costs 10per cent lower than the national average and staff turnover lower than any other region in the UK.



Innovation | Science | Healthcare | Pharmaceuticals

Innovation | Science | Healthcare | PharmaceuticalsWith a host of leading businesses in the field, top universities, world-class technology parks like NETPark and Newcastle Science Central and organisations that are charged with leading the sector’s development, the North East is an area that has science in its DNA.

The North East is already home to 240 biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare companies, to leading world-class academic research, translational medicine and clinical excellence in the healthcare and life sciences sector. Characterised and driven by leading universities, clinical infrastructure, public sector investment and the industrial base, the region has developed particular expertise in a number of sub-sectors, disease areas and thematic areas including ageing and health, regenerative medicine, diagnostics and drug discovery. This has led to industry giants like GlaxoSmithKline, Proctor & Gamble, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Piramal Healthcare and Waters Corporation investing in the area, as well as home-grown success stories like Kromek, QuantuMDx, Aesica, SCM Pharma, Reinnervate, Peacocks Medical Group, Orla Protein and Tynetec.

With the best performing and largest NHS Trust in the country outside London, that collaborate with the region’s top performing universities with strengths in pharmacy and sciences, the area is a hotbed for skilled people and innovation. Durham and Newcastle Universities are members of the N8 group, a leading initiative that collectively undertakes more than £650m of research income per annum and employs over 18,000 academic staff. Newcastle and Durham Universities are also part of the Russell Group, the 24 leading research-based universities in the UK, recognition of their work which includes dedicated campuses like Newcastle University’s North East England Stem Cell Institute, Institute of Genetic Medicine and Durham’s Biophysical Sciences Institute and Neuroimaging Centre.

Teamed with great support networks - like Newcastle Science City, which offers resources and advice to science-based businesses in North East England; NETPark Net, a virtual innovation support network that enables science, engineering and technology companies in North East England to access a range of support services; Bionow, a membership organisation for the biomedical and life sciences industry in the region; and Centre for Process Innovation, which uses applied knowledge in science and engineering, combined with state of the art development facilities to enable clients to develop, scale up and take new products and processes to market – it is easy to see what is attracting businesses to the area.

As well as the people, universities and networks, the area has custom built spaces for businesses in this field. Newcastle Science Central, located in the heart of Newcastle City Centre, is a 100,000 sq m site that will focus on the development of businesses investing and operating in the world of sustainable science. The expectation is that the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability will be located here to capitalise on world-leading research on sustainability. And Durham’s North East Technology Park, NETPark, is rapidly becoming one of the most high profile science parks in the UK. It occupies 90 hectares and offers premises and facilities designed for innovative high technology businesses, including 4,000 sq m of incubator space from 15 sq m upwards and development plots from 0.5 to 10 hectares.


Financial | Professional | Business Services

Financial | Professional | Business ServicesThe North East is a hugely attractive place for financial, professional and business services, with high quality accommodation, a loyal and highly skilled workforce and a reputation for excellent customer service. With great links to the capital, a large number of businesses are ‘North-shoring’ to take advantage of the benefits the region brings.

The area is home to some of the largest legal and financial services companies in the UK, including Barclays, Virgin Money, Santander, AA Insurance, Sage plc, Eversheds, Ward Hadaway, PWC, KPMG and Ernst & Young among others, and will soon be joined by the Atom Bank, the first truly digital bank, which has committed itself to a North East base. And the low business costs and high quality offices have attracted a wide range of UK and international companies to establish large scale contact centres, shared services and back office facilities including names like EE, BskyB, British Airways, Convergys, Sitel, RWE, nPower, Balfour Beatty and Teleperformance.

One of the major attractions to investors is the ready availability of a skilled and loyal workforce. 1.6 million people live within a 30 minute catchment area of the key employment sites, providing a vast pool of talented individuals for businesses to tap into. The loyalty, productivity, commitment and work ethic of the workforce is one of the area’s most important assets. Some contact centres have reported attrition rates as low as one per cent.

The area is a highly-skilled economy with companies reporting fewer skills shortages than in any other part of the country. One quarter of the local labour pool is educated to degree level and this figure continues to rise. The four universities of Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Durham provide world class higher education to around 85,000 students, while local colleges provide a comprehensive range of courses from generic administration and customer service qualifications, to individually tailored pre-employment contact centre training. And the future for skills is bright, with the area topping regional tables for the percentage of students achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs since 2008.

Businesses that choose the North East form part of a connected, collaborative business community. Among the professional networking events in the region are Newcastle Law Society, which has been promoting professional expertise for over 180 years; the North East Accountancy Awards, which recognise excellence within the fields of finance, accounting and tax; and the North East Contact Centre Awards, where the area’s 145 call centres come together to showcase their achievements.

The region’s city centres provide the main administrative, commercial and financial hubs, offering a fantastic range of commercial property options from high-tech incubator suites to multi-level office developments. Some of the exciting additions to the region’s commercial property landscape include Newcastle’s flagship Stephenson Quarter, a £200million mixed use development, with phase one due for completion by July 2015. And on the opposite side of the Tyne is Baltic Business Quarter, a vibrant 1.25million square feet urban business park.

There are also many established business parks in the area, offering a community feel with good parking and leisure facilities to maintain a desirable working environment. Among these parks is Cobalt Business Park, the largest office park in the UK; Doxford International Business Park, near the A19; Spectrum Business Park in Seaham, Northumberland Business Park with great access to the A19 and A1 and Quorum Business Park, located four miles from Newcastle city centre.


Software | Creative | Technology | Digital


Software | Creative | Technology | DigitalThe North East is home to a growing cluster of innovative creative and digital businesses that are taking advantage of the highly skilled people the area boasts, and the collaborative, connected and cutting edge environments on offer in this part of the world.

The area is already home to some 6,000 businesses in this field, employing over 20,000 people and contributing £755million to the regional economy each year. And the sector has enjoyed continuous growth, seeing more new technology start-ups than anywhere else outside of London.

So it is no surprise that among the businesses choosing the North East are nationally and internationally recognised technology enterprises including locally founded Sage plc, the world’s third-largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software and the largest supplier to small businesses, and employing hundreds of people in Newcastle HQ; Leighton, one of the UK’s foremost digital consultancies with a large global portfolio; 5th Generation Technologies, an Indian company that chose Sunderland for its European base to develop business intelligence tools for manufacturing and retail firms; Accenture, a global IT outsourcer which has its UK delivery centre in the region; Reflections, the largest independent game publisher in Europe; Eutechnyx, the world’s leading independent racing game developer with a history spanning 25 years and CCP Games, the world-renowned Icelandic games studio, which has a strategic base here in North East England. Other big name technology businesses that have chosen the North East are IBM, Worldpay and HP.

Growing a reputation nationally and internationally - particularly in games development, graphic art, coding and cloud computing - the North East is a real hotbed of technology talent, with innovative minds and a network of universities bringing through the next generation of skilled software developers. Around 100 students graduate each year in Animation and Special Effects from Northumbria University, and among the university’s alumni is Sir Jonathan Ive, Head of Design at Apple, often credited as the creative force behind the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Not only that, but our talent costs are sustainable with comparable wage rates a third lower than London.

Team all of this with a range of new centres specifically aimed at businesses in this field, and support programmes including the Northern Film and Media, which invests in production, creative businesses and talent, and has a range of commercial investments across the film, TV and digital media sectors; Digital Union, the largest digital and commercial creative network in North East England; Sunderland Software City, a support service which supports the growth and innovation of the software Industry in North East England and Ignite 100, one of the country’s leading tech accelerator programmes, the North East is blazing a trail in this innovative field.


Visit www.investnortheastengland.co.uk or email [email protected]

to find out more about the opportunities available in North East England

EUROPEAN UNIONInvesting in Your Future

European RegionalDevelopment Fund 2007-13

@InvestNEEngland


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