Council approves 'ambitious' plan with potential to create up to 11,000 new jobs

The county council’s new economic strategy provides the overarching blueprint for economic growth in both traditional and emerging sectors.

It focuses on providing support for the county’s established businesses in areas such as agriculture and tourism, while also boosting new, high growth industries such as clean energy and technology. This comes off the back of the £10billion investment in a new data centre at Cambois.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s cabinet, deputy leader and cabinet member for business Coun Richard Wearmouth said: “This is a plan that has strong support across all the various parties for the work we have done.

“It is based on a significant amount of data analysis, looking at our strengths and what we do well, as well as what we might do better in the future.

“We’re targeting new economic sectors that are going to grow in the years to come and give us the opportunity to create significantly more jobs and attract more investment.”

Coun Wearmouth said there were plans to boost local food and drink producers with the council’s Taste of Northumberland scheme, while farms will be supported to diversify.

He added that the county has a “heritage” of advanced manufacturing and there is hope more businesses can be attracted to the region.

Coun Wearmouth continued: “We hope to create 11,000 new jobs in those sectors. We’re starting from a really solid foundation – this administration has done an awful lot over the last nine years to secure infrastructure investment.”

Cabinet member for finance Coun Nick Oliver added: “This demonstrates that Northumberland is open for business. It treads a fine line between growth sectors and looking after our core sectors.

“It recognises that economic growth is driven by businesses themselves and not the council or the Government, but we can play a really important role acting as a catalyst. It demonstrates our ambition for Northumberland.”

One of the core components of the economic strategy is the new Northumberland Growth Fund (NGF) that the county council is aiming to launch this year to support the economic growth of the county over the next 10 years.

As part of the significant £10billion investment from QTS Blackstone to develop a new data centre campus in Cambois, the NGF provides a transformational financial resource of up to £110million, ringfenced to maximise opportunities across the county to deliver further jobs growth and investment in support of the Northumberland Economic Strategy.

Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “This is an exciting time for Northumberland. Recent years have been marked by significant and accelerating changes in the global, national, and local landscapes, marked both by major policy changes and economic challenges.

“That’s why it’s the right time to bring forward this very ambitious, renewed strategy that reflects these structural shifts and sets a clear, long-term direction for growth.

“Growth alone is not sufficient. The quality, accessibility and distribution of that growth will determine whether prosperity is felt across all parts of our county.”

The plan was unanimously approved by the cabinet.