listen German good afternoon it’s a real
pleasure to be invited by herb to speak
at TEDx I’d actually own that company
who’s talking about I own some of it so
it’s very kind of him to give me the
rest of that so I have to follow an
exploding professor I know there’s music
coming later and Alfie Jerry’s
impressions none of which I can do so
I’ll do my best
but you have had a good session on
depression so that might come in useful
sooner than you thought so as hope said
I’m the co-founder and chairman of
something called policy North it’s a
think-tank
how exciting is that well really it’s
just a repository for ideas it’s a place
for ideas that believe the North East is
great but could be even greater and that
we haven’t engaged and won the battle of
the ideas so in Westminster I think they
still think we build chips and dig coal
now we do still build some ships and we
do still dig some coal but not quite as
much as we used to
so maybe coal mining is now data mining
but it’s important that we do engage
what are going to talk to you about is a
terrible version of a Christmas Carol
North East past present and future
hopefully without the ghosts and I win
the jeebies award of having to address
the elephant in the room which is what
does brexit mean for the Northeast now
you won’t need the depression session
because I’m not going to talk about
article 50 or checkers or any of that
other stuff I’m going to talk about the
positive aspects of what might come next
year if we take a single-minded view of
what the Northeast could be so the past
will have some audience participation um
what are we known for we’re known for
heavy industry coal mining shipbuilding
merchant trading and engineering and
fabrication it annoys me when those
things are said in a negative context we
should not be ashamed of what this
region used to do for it is in that DNA
in that corporate and industrial
identity that the things we do now are
born because we used to dig coal along
mass across Durham and Teesside and Tyne
and Wear
does not mean that’s all we’re good for
in fact it means many of the identifiers
in those industries can be translated to
you to the future particularly in
digital in my sector we will world
leading in wealth creation at the end of
the 18th century in particular in the
period 1770 to 18
five our GDP per head was not only the
greatest in the United Kingdom it was
the greatest in the world today we would
rank higher than Qatar we’d be the
number one wealth creator per head now I
accept it wasn’t particularly well
distributed and it was held by a very
small number of people but we can change
the second part do I think we’ll get
back to that position in the world no
because I’m not insane but I certainly
I’m not completely insane I certainly
think we could get higher up that order
with a relentless focus on the greater
good of the region world leaning wealth
doesn’t come without outstanding
leadership and this part of the world
where you’re sat today on the banks of
the time actually in gate said but close
enough to new cars you can see it was an
outstanding source of real world leaders
we need to get back to that we need a
next generation and a generation after
that of people who are prepared to stand
up not just for business but for social
mobility for change for wealth creation
and really to sell that message that
this is a region of passionate people
and passionate places that if it focused
with one direction not the band that we
could do really really well name the
people Collingwood Admiral Lord
Collingwood former naval officer
probably the least well-known Admiral
but there are lots of pubs where you
have seen his name above the door or on
the wall and seat indelible you no
wonder the fantastic listed estates in
this part of the world is as much of his
doing Earl Grey you shout and honor in
unison Earl Grey not just famous for tea
not just famous for tea but famous as a
prime minister famous for personally
owning the great Reform Act of 1832
giving power back to the people before
that was a popular phrase he also had a
lovely monument which if you placed your
back to and look down the hill you’ll
see a street scene voted consistently by
country life as England’s most
outstanding Street Dean Street gray
Street in Newcastle here this is not
about football but I think football
allegiance aside you’d get unanimous
support that Sir Bobby was a fantastic
leader but he could bring not just a
bunch of players in a football club but
a city together
in unison with a single goal Lord
Armstrong Lord Armstrong who died a
hundred eight
ten years ago is still leaving an active
legacy today to the charitable trust he
left behind for the donation of the
entirety of Jasmine Dean to the city he
bill Cragside the most technologically
advanced property ever built in its time
the first in the world with underfloor
heating the first was hydroelectric
power a hundred and eighteen years ago
he died he’s a tough act to follow he
employed the entirety of L zyk and his
works on the time now the site of
formerly Armstrong Vickers are now Reis
group you know that’s a tough act to
follow but we must strive to follow that
so John Hall I’ve been very lucky over
the last 10 years to get to those to
join him very well
he’s gruff he tells you what he thinks
he doesn’t care whether you agree but he
built the largest shopping center in
Europe at its time he ran the largest
property development company in the
Northeast and a minor son a minor son
from North Seton in Ashington bought the
Marquess of Londonderry stately home in
T sight that social mobility who’s done
it since not enough people I would
suggest Grace Darling leadership in a
physical sense like lighthouse owner’s
daughter going out into rough seas to
rescue people off the far islands and
see houses Emily Davison of morpeth only
two weeks ago a statue was finally
unveiled she was a suffragette she was a
leader in social change he died for her
cause killed by the Kings race or SATA
Darby not suggestion you take her advice
literally where are we today we’ve got
the highest rate of technology startups
outside of London according to a
Santander survey in 2016 we saw a 70%
rise in the formation of those companies
in the year between 2016 and 2017
according to a study this year by our SM
we have the early stages of a
coalescence of the Northeast as a tech
hub in all senses of the digital word
north of time devolution Newcastle City
Council North Tyneside Northumberland
County Council coming together
in March next year as a single combined
authority to make joined-up decisions on
the future of our children’s education
on Transport on skills and on investment
teas merry men
no one said it was possible no one would
have believed two years ago that the
southern half of the region would come
together behind a single mayor for
collective investment and I think in the
13
half months that Ben’s been doing that
job we’ve seen a redevelopment of the
SSI site and much more to come
carbon capture the government’s
acceptance of policy North’s proposal
that Teesside should form the Great
North Freeport a free trade zone that
will create 30,000 jobs in the supply
chain and 1.3 billion pounds of new GVA
that’s progress
we need more there are some truly
excellent businesses not in a local
sense in a national and international
sense based here partner eyes formerly
performance horizon at the bottom of
Forth Banks has had hundreds of millions
of dollars of investments from really
hard-nosed tough us VCS who don’t invest
for fun the investment returns true
potential in Newbern probably the
biggest business you haven’t heard of
today valued at least a billion dollars
with 10 million pounds of funds under
management a FinTech business completely
changing how pensions and savings are
administered for ordinary people visual
soft which is a world leader an early
leader in e-commerce solutions that’s
had a tough time but has just recently
posted a 40 percent growth in top level
turnover with a new office opening a new
castle and a head office in Teesside
that’s fantastic for the region that
company is known around the world
Ries group the modern incarnation of
Lord Armstrong Celtic works also housing
Reese innovation really looking to
incubate a whole new generation of not
just manufacturing but technology
businesses zero lights if you’re into
cars a business that was in the computer
games industry that pivoted and is now
world recognized to augmented reality
appointed by Audi and pagina Zonda to be
the visualization provider for all of
their new cars a fantastic business that
Darin and his team run Scott logic a
really niche software business that
powers trading in financial services
platforms around the world with clients
like UBS and Credit Suisse really big
companies and they’re from here those
companies are based within a mile of
where you sit in their ran by fantastic
people challenges opportunity is not
without challenge if high failure rates
so as I started by saying we had the
highest rate of startups outside of
London that is true we all set the
highest failure rate of those businesses
between three and four years after
they’re founded why well I think it’s
probably linked to a lot of dependency
on soft European Union investment via
programs such as Jeremy one and Jeremy
two
the reason it is when they stop
investing some of those businesses
aren’t real their ability dependent on
that cheap money when that chick money
is taken away they fail that does no one
in this room are no one in this region
any favors if the key performance
indicators or job creation they will
fail wealth creation if you’re a
subscriber to trickle-down economics
wealth creation is what’s important job
creation penalizes the technology
industry we grow turnover
disproportionately quickly – we grow
head count so head counts the wrong
measure if you want to go a light agile
high-growth economy we lack a robust
accelerator that is not meant with any
disrespect to accelerators ever gone
before but you have to be tougher you
have to say you three guys and girls are
great this idea is rubbish put it in the
bin go and have another one come back
we’ll invest in that we don’t do that
enough we say here’s a hundred grand
best of luck and then we look shocked a
year later when they have no money left
we mustn’t do that with tarnish a whole
generation of future entrepreneurs by
investing in rubbish talent attraction
and retention I actually think we’re
improving here this is a fantastic part
of the world I’m sure most of us live
here we are doing better I don’t know if
we’re going to fill all of this student
accommodation that we’re building
because there’s certainly a lot but I
hope that we do because our academic
institutions are absolutely the core of
the future of our business success here
and I’m pleased to see what’s happening
in science central to the west of the
city will be good for all of us if it
works we have a tribal view so we tend
to stand around the edge of whether it’s
our town our county or our half of the
region and care more there it’s
Newcastle or Sunderland football aside
Middlesbrough Durham Stockton or the
Tees Valley that wins it matters not
there are only 1.1 million of us if we
take the definition of the Northeast
from beric down to Stockton and
westerholt whistle four point eight
million people use the Jubilee Line
today we’re a rounding error on a
national stage we’re not big enough to
fight as Newcastle or gates said all or
Middlesbrough we have to come together
the Freeport is the right idea it won’t
benefit the part of the world where I
live but it will indirectly because
those jobs will move throughout the
region we have to be less driver
political challenges of the Northeast
without being political the government
empower is not the predominant party in
this region that means you have to work
so much harder to make a business case
for investment the government will
listen they’ll listen if you say I want
to
85 million pounds to create a mayoral
authority across the region it will
return 800 million over five years
they’ll listen to that because the
treasury were really tight and they love
making money and they haven’t got a lot
left but if you go and say hey you
closed all the pits and you took away
all the chip building and now we’re all
poor they won’t listen is that’s an
argument that’s you’re to rant and you
get nowhere with the Rampton government
the future the third ghost I think we
could be a world leader by any measure
in tertiary digital services and all of
those lightweight agile parts of the
economy we could generate wealth on a
scale that we haven’t done for two to
250 years and I think that’s a real
opportunity they think that’s a dream I
think we’re seeing the very early stages
about happening today
throw the grace in those academic
centers of excellence we need really
really good graduates to come in not
just graduate but apprenticeships
apprenticeships became a dirty word it
shouldn’t be it’s a fantastic way of
getting people into industry early and
if you took a slice at age 25 in my
trade the non graduates tend to
outperform the graduates because that
nine years in the industry is
phenomenally valuable that’s not to
devalue degrees but I do think I would
be so keen to take on 60 thousand pounds
worth of debt and I really knew it was
going to move the needle on my career
increased SME integration into large
business supply chains whereas a
mouthful small businesses should get
more of what’s available to be spent
government money should not go to PLC’s
exclusively they tend to not offer good
social value so we need to work harder
to make sure that the small businesses
and they don’t have to be particularly
small but they certainly shouldn’t be
footsie 100 PRCs get a fair chance to
bid for work that they can deliver with
excellence we can lead in renewable
energy automated vehicles included
within that financial services we
already are highly regulated software
augmented and virtual reality these are
things we are known for on an
international stage and we have to
capitalize and do more we could remain a
world leader in precision engineering
and advanced manufacturing whether it’s
the renewable energy sector building
wind turbines and Teesside whether it’s
Shepherd offshore and the north bank of
the time we don’t have to go into
digital at the cost of what we used to
do well we can do both we can do both
and we can put a fire underneath bit and
underneath this thing and make it even
bigger
brexit tada direct flights from
newcastle to london city currently
precluded that would be support of an
airline that’s not allowed under the
european union regulations so let’s do
that then
they’re gone let’s do that let’s get on
a flight at Newcastle that takes you not
to Heathrow which is approximately
nowhere near London right into the
center of London between four businesses
that I know you could fill a 70 C to fly
on it on a twice daily basis so let’s
get that up and running that’s a real
thing the Northeast of people that
believe in action not words that’s a
real thing we can deliver that in the
next six months
removal of sectors specific investment
restrictions so the EU preclude us from
investing in any area that they believe
is supported directly by the EU farming
agriculture generally the fishing
industry mining that does hurt us quite
a lot up here that’s all gone we should
invest in the things we think will make
the biggest impact not because they
break paragraph 26 of some European
Convention there is currently a limit of
200 thousand euros there’s what’s called
de minimis state aid it’s a nonsense it
should go we should support businesses
to the maximum extent that is required
for so long as they continue to generate
a return on that investment an arbitrary
figure that says no more actually makes
no sense at all we should be harsh with
that money it shouldn’t be free and it
shouldn’t be just given out in a
spending spree but if a business needs a
million pounds and that makes them
become a 50 million pound company that’s
what we should be doing we should focus
on scale up not startups by government
so I’m a private investor I’m sure there
others in the room we’re mad enough to
take a punt on complete first stage
startups that’s not the job of
government governments don’t have money
taxpayers have money it’s your money
it’s my money that money should be used
once the business is de-risk to really
get them up so they can get to a million
pounds turnover that’s when the
government money should come in because
we wanted to get to 100 million pounds
tournament where are the PLC’s in
Newcastle and Durham and Middlesbrough
they’re not here and they need to be
here further devolution of spending in
power how many times you said they just
don’t understand us in London they don’t
it’s like up here you’re right they
don’t so we need to get that power back
we should get that back to the northeast
by people that have lived here ran
businesses here and understand the
unique things that we need we need more
PLC’s
both on aim and on the main market
because they have the capacity and depth
funding to be able to do really good
things like proper graduate training
programs you know two year structured
programs to take our graduates and make
them really work ready we have the
lowest capita representation of PLC’s
and we need to change that because it’s
a pyramid and it starts at the top we
need the next Armstrong Collingwood and
Hall statistically you’re here you’re
somewhere in this room and we need to
unlock that we need northeast children
to raise their heads and believe that
coming from this part of the world is
not a disadvantage in fact it’s a
massive advantage passionate people
passionate places fantastic businesses
sage Cameron all developments there are
lot we need more we need our children to
raise their heads and believe there is
no reason they could not run the biggest
business in Europe because they could
and this is the best place in the world
to do that the Northeast is great but it could be significantly greater
pleasure to be invited by herb to speak
at TEDx I’d actually own that company
who’s talking about I own some of it so
it’s very kind of him to give me the
rest of that so I have to follow an
exploding professor I know there’s music
coming later and Alfie Jerry’s
impressions none of which I can do so
I’ll do my best
but you have had a good session on
depression so that might come in useful
sooner than you thought so as hope said
I’m the co-founder and chairman of
something called policy North it’s a
think-tank
how exciting is that well really it’s
just a repository for ideas it’s a place
for ideas that believe the North East is
great but could be even greater and that
we haven’t engaged and won the battle of
the ideas so in Westminster I think they
still think we build chips and dig coal
now we do still build some ships and we
do still dig some coal but not quite as
much as we used to
so maybe coal mining is now data mining
but it’s important that we do engage
what are going to talk to you about is a
terrible version of a Christmas Carol
North East past present and future
hopefully without the ghosts and I win
the jeebies award of having to address
the elephant in the room which is what
does brexit mean for the Northeast now
you won’t need the depression session
because I’m not going to talk about
article 50 or checkers or any of that
other stuff I’m going to talk about the
positive aspects of what might come next
year if we take a single-minded view of
what the Northeast could be so the past
will have some audience participation um
what are we known for we’re known for
heavy industry coal mining shipbuilding
merchant trading and engineering and
fabrication it annoys me when those
things are said in a negative context we
should not be ashamed of what this
region used to do for it is in that DNA
in that corporate and industrial
identity that the things we do now are
born because we used to dig coal along
mass across Durham and Teesside and Tyne
and Wear
does not mean that’s all we’re good for
in fact it means many of the identifiers
in those industries can be translated to
you to the future particularly in
digital in my sector we will world
leading in wealth creation at the end of
the 18th century in particular in the
period 1770 to 18
five our GDP per head was not only the
greatest in the United Kingdom it was
the greatest in the world today we would
rank higher than Qatar we’d be the
number one wealth creator per head now I
accept it wasn’t particularly well
distributed and it was held by a very
small number of people but we can change
the second part do I think we’ll get
back to that position in the world no
because I’m not insane but I certainly
I’m not completely insane I certainly
think we could get higher up that order
with a relentless focus on the greater
good of the region world leaning wealth
doesn’t come without outstanding
leadership and this part of the world
where you’re sat today on the banks of
the time actually in gate said but close
enough to new cars you can see it was an
outstanding source of real world leaders
we need to get back to that we need a
next generation and a generation after
that of people who are prepared to stand
up not just for business but for social
mobility for change for wealth creation
and really to sell that message that
this is a region of passionate people
and passionate places that if it focused
with one direction not the band that we
could do really really well name the
people Collingwood Admiral Lord
Collingwood former naval officer
probably the least well-known Admiral
but there are lots of pubs where you
have seen his name above the door or on
the wall and seat indelible you no
wonder the fantastic listed estates in
this part of the world is as much of his
doing Earl Grey you shout and honor in
unison Earl Grey not just famous for tea
not just famous for tea but famous as a
prime minister famous for personally
owning the great Reform Act of 1832
giving power back to the people before
that was a popular phrase he also had a
lovely monument which if you placed your
back to and look down the hill you’ll
see a street scene voted consistently by
country life as England’s most
outstanding Street Dean Street gray
Street in Newcastle here this is not
about football but I think football
allegiance aside you’d get unanimous
support that Sir Bobby was a fantastic
leader but he could bring not just a
bunch of players in a football club but
a city together
in unison with a single goal Lord
Armstrong Lord Armstrong who died a
hundred eight
ten years ago is still leaving an active
legacy today to the charitable trust he
left behind for the donation of the
entirety of Jasmine Dean to the city he
bill Cragside the most technologically
advanced property ever built in its time
the first in the world with underfloor
heating the first was hydroelectric
power a hundred and eighteen years ago
he died he’s a tough act to follow he
employed the entirety of L zyk and his
works on the time now the site of
formerly Armstrong Vickers are now Reis
group you know that’s a tough act to
follow but we must strive to follow that
so John Hall I’ve been very lucky over
the last 10 years to get to those to
join him very well
he’s gruff he tells you what he thinks
he doesn’t care whether you agree but he
built the largest shopping center in
Europe at its time he ran the largest
property development company in the
Northeast and a minor son a minor son
from North Seton in Ashington bought the
Marquess of Londonderry stately home in
T sight that social mobility who’s done
it since not enough people I would
suggest Grace Darling leadership in a
physical sense like lighthouse owner’s
daughter going out into rough seas to
rescue people off the far islands and
see houses Emily Davison of morpeth only
two weeks ago a statue was finally
unveiled she was a suffragette she was a
leader in social change he died for her
cause killed by the Kings race or SATA
Darby not suggestion you take her advice
literally where are we today we’ve got
the highest rate of technology startups
outside of London according to a
Santander survey in 2016 we saw a 70%
rise in the formation of those companies
in the year between 2016 and 2017
according to a study this year by our SM
we have the early stages of a
coalescence of the Northeast as a tech
hub in all senses of the digital word
north of time devolution Newcastle City
Council North Tyneside Northumberland
County Council coming together
in March next year as a single combined
authority to make joined-up decisions on
the future of our children’s education
on Transport on skills and on investment
teas merry men
no one said it was possible no one would
have believed two years ago that the
southern half of the region would come
together behind a single mayor for
collective investment and I think in the
13
half months that Ben’s been doing that
job we’ve seen a redevelopment of the
SSI site and much more to come
carbon capture the government’s
acceptance of policy North’s proposal
that Teesside should form the Great
North Freeport a free trade zone that
will create 30,000 jobs in the supply
chain and 1.3 billion pounds of new GVA
that’s progress
we need more there are some truly
excellent businesses not in a local
sense in a national and international
sense based here partner eyes formerly
performance horizon at the bottom of
Forth Banks has had hundreds of millions
of dollars of investments from really
hard-nosed tough us VCS who don’t invest
for fun the investment returns true
potential in Newbern probably the
biggest business you haven’t heard of
today valued at least a billion dollars
with 10 million pounds of funds under
management a FinTech business completely
changing how pensions and savings are
administered for ordinary people visual
soft which is a world leader an early
leader in e-commerce solutions that’s
had a tough time but has just recently
posted a 40 percent growth in top level
turnover with a new office opening a new
castle and a head office in Teesside
that’s fantastic for the region that
company is known around the world
Ries group the modern incarnation of
Lord Armstrong Celtic works also housing
Reese innovation really looking to
incubate a whole new generation of not
just manufacturing but technology
businesses zero lights if you’re into
cars a business that was in the computer
games industry that pivoted and is now
world recognized to augmented reality
appointed by Audi and pagina Zonda to be
the visualization provider for all of
their new cars a fantastic business that
Darin and his team run Scott logic a
really niche software business that
powers trading in financial services
platforms around the world with clients
like UBS and Credit Suisse really big
companies and they’re from here those
companies are based within a mile of
where you sit in their ran by fantastic
people challenges opportunity is not
without challenge if high failure rates
so as I started by saying we had the
highest rate of startups outside of
London that is true we all set the
highest failure rate of those businesses
between three and four years after
they’re founded why well I think it’s
probably linked to a lot of dependency
on soft European Union investment via
programs such as Jeremy one and Jeremy
two
the reason it is when they stop
investing some of those businesses
aren’t real their ability dependent on
that cheap money when that chick money
is taken away they fail that does no one
in this room are no one in this region
any favors if the key performance
indicators or job creation they will
fail wealth creation if you’re a
subscriber to trickle-down economics
wealth creation is what’s important job
creation penalizes the technology
industry we grow turnover
disproportionately quickly – we grow
head count so head counts the wrong
measure if you want to go a light agile
high-growth economy we lack a robust
accelerator that is not meant with any
disrespect to accelerators ever gone
before but you have to be tougher you
have to say you three guys and girls are
great this idea is rubbish put it in the
bin go and have another one come back
we’ll invest in that we don’t do that
enough we say here’s a hundred grand
best of luck and then we look shocked a
year later when they have no money left
we mustn’t do that with tarnish a whole
generation of future entrepreneurs by
investing in rubbish talent attraction
and retention I actually think we’re
improving here this is a fantastic part
of the world I’m sure most of us live
here we are doing better I don’t know if
we’re going to fill all of this student
accommodation that we’re building
because there’s certainly a lot but I
hope that we do because our academic
institutions are absolutely the core of
the future of our business success here
and I’m pleased to see what’s happening
in science central to the west of the
city will be good for all of us if it
works we have a tribal view so we tend
to stand around the edge of whether it’s
our town our county or our half of the
region and care more there it’s
Newcastle or Sunderland football aside
Middlesbrough Durham Stockton or the
Tees Valley that wins it matters not
there are only 1.1 million of us if we
take the definition of the Northeast
from beric down to Stockton and
westerholt whistle four point eight
million people use the Jubilee Line
today we’re a rounding error on a
national stage we’re not big enough to
fight as Newcastle or gates said all or
Middlesbrough we have to come together
the Freeport is the right idea it won’t
benefit the part of the world where I
live but it will indirectly because
those jobs will move throughout the
region we have to be less driver
political challenges of the Northeast
without being political the government
empower is not the predominant party in
this region that means you have to work
so much harder to make a business case
for investment the government will
listen they’ll listen if you say I want
to
85 million pounds to create a mayoral
authority across the region it will
return 800 million over five years
they’ll listen to that because the
treasury were really tight and they love
making money and they haven’t got a lot
left but if you go and say hey you
closed all the pits and you took away
all the chip building and now we’re all
poor they won’t listen is that’s an
argument that’s you’re to rant and you
get nowhere with the Rampton government
the future the third ghost I think we
could be a world leader by any measure
in tertiary digital services and all of
those lightweight agile parts of the
economy we could generate wealth on a
scale that we haven’t done for two to
250 years and I think that’s a real
opportunity they think that’s a dream I
think we’re seeing the very early stages
about happening today
throw the grace in those academic
centers of excellence we need really
really good graduates to come in not
just graduate but apprenticeships
apprenticeships became a dirty word it
shouldn’t be it’s a fantastic way of
getting people into industry early and
if you took a slice at age 25 in my
trade the non graduates tend to
outperform the graduates because that
nine years in the industry is
phenomenally valuable that’s not to
devalue degrees but I do think I would
be so keen to take on 60 thousand pounds
worth of debt and I really knew it was
going to move the needle on my career
increased SME integration into large
business supply chains whereas a
mouthful small businesses should get
more of what’s available to be spent
government money should not go to PLC’s
exclusively they tend to not offer good
social value so we need to work harder
to make sure that the small businesses
and they don’t have to be particularly
small but they certainly shouldn’t be
footsie 100 PRCs get a fair chance to
bid for work that they can deliver with
excellence we can lead in renewable
energy automated vehicles included
within that financial services we
already are highly regulated software
augmented and virtual reality these are
things we are known for on an
international stage and we have to
capitalize and do more we could remain a
world leader in precision engineering
and advanced manufacturing whether it’s
the renewable energy sector building
wind turbines and Teesside whether it’s
Shepherd offshore and the north bank of
the time we don’t have to go into
digital at the cost of what we used to
do well we can do both we can do both
and we can put a fire underneath bit and
underneath this thing and make it even
bigger
brexit tada direct flights from
newcastle to london city currently
precluded that would be support of an
airline that’s not allowed under the
european union regulations so let’s do
that then
they’re gone let’s do that let’s get on
a flight at Newcastle that takes you not
to Heathrow which is approximately
nowhere near London right into the
center of London between four businesses
that I know you could fill a 70 C to fly
on it on a twice daily basis so let’s
get that up and running that’s a real
thing the Northeast of people that
believe in action not words that’s a
real thing we can deliver that in the
next six months
removal of sectors specific investment
restrictions so the EU preclude us from
investing in any area that they believe
is supported directly by the EU farming
agriculture generally the fishing
industry mining that does hurt us quite
a lot up here that’s all gone we should
invest in the things we think will make
the biggest impact not because they
break paragraph 26 of some European
Convention there is currently a limit of
200 thousand euros there’s what’s called
de minimis state aid it’s a nonsense it
should go we should support businesses
to the maximum extent that is required
for so long as they continue to generate
a return on that investment an arbitrary
figure that says no more actually makes
no sense at all we should be harsh with
that money it shouldn’t be free and it
shouldn’t be just given out in a
spending spree but if a business needs a
million pounds and that makes them
become a 50 million pound company that’s
what we should be doing we should focus
on scale up not startups by government
so I’m a private investor I’m sure there
others in the room we’re mad enough to
take a punt on complete first stage
startups that’s not the job of
government governments don’t have money
taxpayers have money it’s your money
it’s my money that money should be used
once the business is de-risk to really
get them up so they can get to a million
pounds turnover that’s when the
government money should come in because
we wanted to get to 100 million pounds
tournament where are the PLC’s in
Newcastle and Durham and Middlesbrough
they’re not here and they need to be
here further devolution of spending in
power how many times you said they just
don’t understand us in London they don’t
it’s like up here you’re right they
don’t so we need to get that power back
we should get that back to the northeast
by people that have lived here ran
businesses here and understand the
unique things that we need we need more
PLC’s
both on aim and on the main market
because they have the capacity and depth
funding to be able to do really good
things like proper graduate training
programs you know two year structured
programs to take our graduates and make
them really work ready we have the
lowest capita representation of PLC’s
and we need to change that because it’s
a pyramid and it starts at the top we
need the next Armstrong Collingwood and
Hall statistically you’re here you’re
somewhere in this room and we need to
unlock that we need northeast children
to raise their heads and believe that
coming from this part of the world is
not a disadvantage in fact it’s a
massive advantage passionate people
passionate places fantastic businesses
sage Cameron all developments there are
lot we need more we need our children to
raise their heads and believe there is
no reason they could not run the biggest
business in Europe because they could
and this is the best place in the world
to do that the Northeast is great but it could be significantly greater
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