Date: 16/11/2006

Tees Valley Engineering Partnership

Written exclusively for publication in the Evening Gazette, November 2006.

NEWS RELEASE

By Ian Basford, director of Balfour Beatty Management in the North East.

Nowhere in the UK is better placed than the Tees Valley to capitalise on all opportunities for engineering development.

We have the ambition, the technology and the knowledge and skills of a region rooted in industrial heritage to command the lion’s share of engineering investment in this country for decades to come.

Our challenge is to harness this potential and to build on the confidence created by the substantial inward investment already pouring into the region.

In the past fortnight alone we have welcomed three major announcements for the Tees Valley – the £300m project to build a floating drilling platform at Haverton Hill’s shipyard, creating around 500 jobs; the possibility of a massive £200m bioethanol plant and the support by British Gas owner Centrica for the development of a £1bn clean-coal fired power plant.

Rarely have so many prestigious and significant projects been earmarked in such short succession for development sites anywhere in the world, let alone within the UK and more specifically within a single region such as the Tees Valley.

Statistics show that the North of England already hosts more than 1,300 company investments from North America, many of which are from the Fortune 500 companies.

In addition, UK-based companies such as my own, Balfour Beatty Management are now investing heavily in the region, creating jobs and further enhancing the range of services that are available. By adding their roster of specialist engineering, design and management services to the region, these new investors are also helping to reinforce the Tees Valley as being an area of world class capability and one which is suitable for engineering organisations of all shapes and specialities.

Working in conjunction with the Tees Valley Engineering Partnership, engineering companies from across the region are working hard to reinforce this message. We want to show the world that the North East offers a great deal for companies wishing to relocate or to establish a new manufacturing or engineering base.

Our intention now is to market the collective capability of the region and ensure that the Tees Valley is 'First for Engineering' in the mind of anyone who is looking for world-class and cost effective engineering solutions. I am sure we can rely on your support