Oral answer to question provided on Friday, 25 September 2009 in the House of Commons, by Nicholas Brown (Labour), North East Regional Grand Committee.

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Regional Policy

Answer

We also have some exciting projects, to which I intend to refer in a few moments. Perhaps the biggest opportunity is in Sunderland and east Durham, with the investment in the Nissan battery plant and the opportunity to bid—it must be fought for among the Nissan worldwide family of car plants—to build the first electronic cars. I would think that there is a 95 per cent. chance that that work will come to Durham. That would put the Nissan plants in Sunderland and Durham at the very heart of what I am certain will be a world-beating industry for the next generation and the generation beyond. It will expand on to the continent. The Nissan work force will train here and then set up sister plants in western Europe. The intention is to launch in the United States as well, but to do the training in our region. It is tremendously exciting. Alongside that is the development of a new offshore wind power industry in my constituency, which is next door to that of my right hon. Friend the Member for North Tyneside. For those who are not familiar with the industry, the fabrication opportunities are like fabricating the Eiffel tower over and over—I do not mean with all the nice lifts, curlicues and so on; I am just describing the scale of the structure—and then putting something the diameter of the millennium wheel on top. It is huge and continuing fabrication work that will employ thousands of people once it is under way. To have that effectively new industry in the old shipyards is tremendously exciting. For youngsters thinking of a career in engineering, there could be no finer opportunity. There are other exciting projects as well, all to do with climate change. We are ideally placed for a carbon capture and storage scheme due to our proximity to the North sea. A whole series of plants is planned for Teesside, again focusing on renewable energy. One will turn heavy oils into something commercially usable, another will focus on biofuels and there are smaller schemes related to the new technology. The region is designated as a low-carbon economy area. That is not just something done by officials; we have practical projects ready to go and enormous enthusiasm for them in the region. I think that that is the right way for us to work ourselves out of the economic downturn and provide jobs that our people can do enthusiastically.

This is an answer to the Oral question asked on Friday, 25 September 2009 by Chris Mullin (Labour).

Question

Have my right hon. Friend’s discussions with One NorthEast or anywhere else in the region included consideration of what can be done to promote the region as a centre of green technology? It seems to me that we have the skills and some of the manufacturing capacity here to take advantage of what is surely the future.

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Secondary information

Type

Oral answer to question

Reference

NERGC c7-8 

Session

2008-09

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons Grand Committees

Subjects

Regional planning and development North East One NorthEast

Link

View this Oral answer to question on www.publications.parliament.uk