The country can now look to the North East for inspiration

LAST week, over half a million people from the North East and Tees Valley voted in the all-important mayoral elections.

My hopes of a higher turnout were raised when I saw a queue of cars outside of my polling station, only to have them dashed by the realisation it was the school drop-off causing the tailback.

By Friday lunchtime the North East had its first ever mayor and Tees Valley had re-elected its for a third term. The geography of the Chamber exists between the borders with Scotland and North Yorkshire so we were straight out of the blocks to congratulate Kim McGuinness and Ben Houchen on their victories.

The Chamber is absolutely committed to working with both mayors, their cabinets and teams to advance our cause for a stronger, fairer North East.

In the north of the region, Kim will lead the North East Combined Authority and the delivery of the biggest devolution deal in England.

What a huge responsibility for her and what a fantastic opportunity for the North East.

Now into his third term, Ben is no stranger to the mayor’s office in Tees Valley. As always, he’s campaigned robustly on economic development, and I hope he and his team will commit to ensure the benefits of devolution are felt by businesses and communities across that part of our region.

The two devolution deals that are now so essential to our region’s future have never quite run in parallel but they’re more aligned now than ever before. For the first time, every corner of the North East is covered by a devolution deal, every community is represented by an elected mayor and the combined authorities of the North East and Tees Valley share a border.

So now is the time to raise our heads, to be a region that the rest of the UK can look to for inspiration. A North East at the heart of national economic and social renewal.

We will work with both mayors on our own plan to raise the voice of businesses and deliver fair and inclusive growth.

These priorities focus on five key pillars of the region’s economy: people and work; education and participation; enterprise and growth; international trade and green innovation.

The work starts immediately, that’s why I was delighted to welcome Mayor McGuinness to an event with more than 50 of our members on her first full day in the job this week.

In other news, I’m proud to say the Chamber network is stronger than ever. I’ve met cabinet and shadow cabinet members at meetings of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Business Council and colleagues from the international Chamber network at a recent House of Lords lunch hosted by BCC president Martha Lane-Fox.

There’s a real sense of purpose and dynamism in the network and the Chamber is at the forefront. And as spring slowly starts to make way for summer, brighter days are ahead.

It was announced last week that American investment firm Blackstone has completed its purchase of the former Britishvolt site at Cambois in Northumberland.

The business plans to build a series of AI data centres on the land in a project that will create more than 4,000 jobs and bring £10bn of investment into the area.

Investment in this great region is a downpayment on the future prosperity of the nation. I’m confident there is much more of that to come.