North East Times Magazine Issue 459

Darren Richardson, Lucy Gardiner, Nicky Jolley, Keith Miller, Paul Butler, Mark Harrison EST. 1981 July/August

Ben Quigley, Raman Sehgal, David Gibbs, James Silver, Sim Hall,

Sophie Ashcroft

Dr Arnab Basu

Editor

Steven Hugill steven@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Business journalist

Colin Young

T: 07808 974 533 colin@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Business development director

John Duns

T: 07920 152 523 john@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Creative & managing director

Peter Mallon

T: 07590 064 800 pete@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Partnership & marketing manager

Chloe Holmes

T: 07493 555 509 chloe@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Accounts

Jill Brown jill@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Filmography

Andrew Lowe andrew@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Contributors:

Vicki Henderson

Mark Harrison

Paul Butler

Nicky Jolley

Keith Miller

Photography: Ben Benoliel www.benbenoliel.com

Lee Scullion www.leescullion.com

Christopher Owens www.christopherjamesowens.co.uk

Mike Sreenan www.michaelsreenan.com

Angela Carrington

Dan Alecks

Krzysztof Furgala

Jason Thompson www.thisisthebiggerpicture.co.uk

Jamie Haslam www.roamwithus.co.uk

Meg Jepson megjepson.myportfolio.com

Head office

0.09 PROTO, Baltic Business Quarter, Abbot's Hill, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE8 3DF

All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or in part without written permission, is strictly prohibited.

Circulation:

To confirm our circulation please contact Andrew Dunn, Stephens and George Print Group, email: andrew.dunn@stephensandgeorge.co.uk

To amend your mailing address or remove yourself from our mailing list contact chloe@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Contact: @NETimesmagazine www.netimesmagazine.co.uk

Photography:

All photos taken by North East Times staff are copyright North East Times Magazine Ltd, and are taken solely for use in North East Times Magazine or products published by North East Times Magazine Ltd.

If you wish to use or publish a photograph taken for North East Times, please contact pete@netimesmagazine.co.uk

Advertising charges: There is a £25 charge for every set of amendments, following the first initial set of amendments, which is free of charge for adverts designed by North East Times Magazine Ltd.

Cancellations:

If an advert is cancelled by the booker within a seven day period prior to our print deadline, the advert will be charged in full, plus VAT.

Editorial:

Editorial must be received by the 9th of the month or no responsibility is accepted for errors. The opinions expressed in this issue are not necessarily the views held by North East Times Magazine Ltd.

Advertisements:

Strategic partners Partners

Although every care is taken to ensure accuracy, the publishers regret that they cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage caused by an error in the printing or damage to, loss of artwork, transparencies or photos.

Complaints:

Regarding advertisements will only be considered for up to a week after publication. Advertising must be received by the 12th of the month. No responsibility is accepted for errors.

Print:

North East Times is printed by Stephens & George Limited, a fourth-generation, award-winning printer based in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, which is a specialist in sheet-fed lithographic printing of magazines, brochures and programmes.

North East Times is produced using vegetablebased inks combined with innovative chemical-free plate and Heidelberg press technology.

All papers are sourced from well-managed, sustainable forests and Stephens & George’s vast supply chain holds many environmental accreditations.

In addition to this, they hold a Climate Change Agreement along with ISO14001, ISO9001, FSC, PEFC and offer Carbon Balancing via The World Land Trust.

They achieved an E2B Silver award for energy improvements along with an E2B Gold award for recycling; 98.5 per cent of all their waste is recycled. www.stephensandgeorge.co.uk @2023

editor’s WORD

4 Hello and welcome to the latest edition of North East Times Magazine.

I don’t know about you, but I find the world to be so noisy these days.

No, not the constant whizz of traffic, the wannabe death metal star thrashing away next door or the shouty café dweller who has seemingly invited us all into their conversation.

I mean the racket of useless press releases dropping into my inbox.

You know the ones: Steal Khloe Kardashian’s look (no thanks, she’s more than welcome to keep it); the regions that spend the most on furniture; smell better by putting your perfume in the fridge; apples are South Carolina’s favourite fruit…

Then there’s the perpetual political bluster, the mass of clickbait articles and the vitriolic extremes of social media, where people slide the volume to 11 and shout in capital letters at anyone who dares to deviate from their narrative.

And it was while reacting with (now standard) bemusement to Commons' goings-on, hitting the delete button, escaping unwieldy websites and muting profiles that I thought of this column because, while all around gets louder, North East Times Magazine continues to cut through the noise.

This edition is a perfect example.

It begins on a 21-mile stretch of mothballed rail line between Pelaw, in Gateshead, and Ferryhill, in County Durham, with a detailed feature that lobbies the Government to revive the route and provide stronger transport links and no little economic stimulus.

It continues with deep insight around combatting

the region’s skills challenges, with experts from academia and business channelling their thoughts on how to develop existing staff while ushering through new generations.

It extends through a special report alongside architectural practice Corstorphine & Wright, which investigates healthcare through the prism of sustainability, analysing the future direction of support from the intersection of design and wellness.

And it spreads further in the latest of our features on law firm Ward Hadaway’s Fastest 50 list, which this time focuses on the successes of historic building materials merchant JT Dove.

Longevity is celebrated too in our piece with Lucy Gardiner and Darren Richardson, whose eponymous strategic brand communications firm is marking 25 years.

Theirs is a story of friendship and optimism, of identifying a gap in the market and staying supple to trends and technological changes to keep on thriving.

And we mark another milestone in our feature with Dr Arnab Basu, the face of NETPark-based Kromek, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Despite its relatively tender years, the business long since came of age, with its radiation detection equipment helping thwart terror plots and driving improvements across medical scanning.

But, as Dr Basu says, its journey is still only just beginning.

I hope you enjoy this issue.

Steven

The world is a noisy place but, as Steven Hugill writes, North East Times Magazine will never stop making its voice heard, to both celebrate the region’s commercial environment and drive it towards greater success…

Five minutes with... Nicky Jolley is managing director of HR2day, the Darlington-based provider of human resources support to firms across the North East and beyond. Here, she tells Steven Hugill about the company’s growth, why HR is far more than a perceived box-ticking exercise, and why, despite its continued expansion, the business will never lose its personal touch.

There were thrills aplenty as The Hoppings made a triumphant return to Newcastle’s Town Moor. Featuring hundreds of attractions and sideshows, Europe’s largest funfair once again sent thousands of visitors wild with excitement.

A roundtable discussion, hosted by North East Times Magazine alongside award-winning architectural practice Corstorphine & Wright, saw sector leaders and key academic thinkers investigate wellbeing through the prism of sustainability.

Feature Gardiner Richardson

Grow

Closing this month’s issue of North East Times Magazine, Keith Miller, chair at Cramlington-headquartered international earthmover bucket and coupler maker Miller, reflects on the firm’s 45th anniversary, its plans for future growth and its place within the global sustainability agenda.

BEHIND THE COVER

“After sitting and chatting with Arnab, I wanted to capture a little bit of his calm and friendly character. His stories are engaging and inspiring; one thing that stuck with me is how he is always looking to the future but not forgetting where he started.”

Mike Sreenan, photographer

Feature Dr Arnab Basu

Business spotlight

North East Times Magazine throws a spotlight on the latest news, views, trends and technologies shaping the region’s economic and business landscape

LightOx boosts mouth cancer treatment with seven-figure support Health

Ford Aerospace creates jobs to meet demand Engineering

A medical firm combatting early-stage mouth cancers has secured more than £1 million to bring a pioneering remedy closer to market.

LightOx has been backed by Innovate UK to further develop a light-based drug compound that attacks diseased oral cells.

Bosses at the Newcastle company say the cash is a “great endorsement of its world-class research”, adding it will spur the delivery of ‘chair-side’ treatment for patients.

Dr Sam Whitehouse, LightOx chief executive, said: “This is the next step in our journey to wide-scale treatment where there is currently no medical intervention other than surgery.”

Professor Carrie Ambler, LightOx’s chief scientific officer, added: “This grant allows us to accelerate our drug development programme, allowing us to work with partners to develop a unique

therapeutic solution for patients.”

LightOx received its £1.1 million support through the Government-backed Biomedical Catalyst programme, which funnels public cash into next generation schemes via Innovate UK, and is working with teams at Liverpool Head and Neck Centre, University of Liverpool and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to finalise treatment development.

Hailing the partnership’s potential, Dr Caroline McCarthy and Professor Richard Shaw, of Liverpool Head and Neck Centre, added: “We are delighted to be collaborating with LightOx.

“This could provide a minimally invasive treatment option for patients at high risk of developing oral cancer.

“The prevention of oral cancer is a top priority, and we are committed to delivering world-class research for patient benefit.”

An engineering firm has unveiled plans to bolster its workforce.

Ford Aerospace wants staff to meet rising demand.

The drive – which includes recruiting a new managing director, as well as manufacturing, HR and marketing staff – follows a takeover by US-headquartered SPIROL earlier this year and complements an ongoing £1 million-plus machinery outlay.

Outgoing boss Chris Ford, great-grandson of company founder Robert, said: “The business is in a strong position with an exceptional management team and staff in place.

"It is fantastic to see SPIROL continuing our tradition of investing in people and capacity.

“I am excited to see it go from strength-to-strength under new leadership,” added Chris, who will continue supporting the 113-year-old South Shields company – whose parts are used on coastguard helicopters and construction vehicles – in a consultancy capacity.

The business was recently named SME company of the year at the North East Automotive Alliance Awards.

Professor Carrie Ambler, LightOx chief scientific officer, and Dr Sam Whitehouse, the firm’s chief executive, have hailed the business’ Biomedical Catalyst support

Chris Ford, right, with Ken Hagen, SPIROL division president

Nissan gears for further growth after production record

Manufacturing

A car maker has smashed a production milestone.

Nissan has made its 11 millionth vehicle at its Sunderland plant.

The landmark model, an electrified version of the Japanese marque’s flagship Qashqai hatchback, is being sent to a customer in France.

And bosses say the firm will continue breaking records, with a £1 billion project alongside long-standing partner Envision AESC bringing a battery-making plant and all-electric ‘crossover’ model to the region, as part of the company’s EV36Zero programme.

Adam Pennick, manufacturing vice president at the firm’s Sunderland plant, said: “This milestone reflects the vast experience our world-class manufacturing team has in delivering the quality cars our

SPG eyes expansion after salvaging tech jobs

Digital jobs have been saved following a software firm’s administration.

Newcastle-based Solution Performance Group (SPG) has rescued 20 roles from collapsed fellow city operator Boxmodel Digital Media.

SPG says the move has boosted staff numbers to 70, leaving it “better placed to meet growing demand across the public and private sectors”.

Gareth Humphreys, SPG group chief executive, said: “We’re really happy to be welcoming former Boxmodel staff.

“They bring great talent and expertise

customers love.

“We’ve come a long way since production first started, but we’re always looking forward, and our fully-electrified range and EV36Zero plan mean we have an exciting and sustainable future.”

Nissan’s Wearside factory began production in 1986 with the Bluebird family car.

The plant, which employs about 6000 staff, has since made the company’s Micra, Primera, Note and Juke models, as well as all-electric Leaf hatchbacks and a number of Qashqai revamps.

It was also briefly home to Nissan's luxury Infiniti marque.

Factoring in its 11 millionth vehicle, bosses say a new car has rolled off the Wearside factory’s production lines, on average, every two minutes, across every hour of every day, for 37 years.

Port’s delight at new recycling deal Distribution

to our growing team as we expand the range of services and products we deliver across the UK.” Based in The Core, on Newcastle’s Helix science and digital park, SPG provides services to improve software delivery and impact for Government departments, emergency services and social housing organisations.

Founded in 2009, Boxmodel delivered software engineering to firms including Renault and Airbus Defence and Space.

Alan Easton, former Boxmodel managing director, added: “SPG has a great customer base and ambitious plans to grow the business in the coming years.

"I’m confident our former highly experienced team will prove a great asset and support future growth.”

A dock operator says it is “embarking on a new chapter” after agreeing a fresh green deal. Port of Tyne has signed a ten-year contract with European Metals Recycling (EMR).

The arrangement builds on a 25-year relationship, with port chief executive Matt Beeton hailing its potential within wider ambitions to expand the base’s “clean energy cluster”.

EMR handles 300,000 tonnes of waste metal every year from its South Shields depot, which is processed and sold for use in vehicles, electronics and household appliances across the Mediterranean, North America and the Far East.

However, the new deal will “significantly increase” work on ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Matt said: “EMR’s marketleading position on sustainability issues, alongside its important role in the circular economy, is aligned with our strategies.”

Scott Bamborough, EMR UK ports manager, added: “Our South Shields operation will continue to help play our part in the battle against climate change.”

Staff at Nissan’s Sunderland plant celebrate production of the factory’s 11 millionth vehicle

Port of Tyne officials have extended a deal with European Metals Recycling

Lycetts’ glee as results surmount ‘challenging’ market Finance

An insurance broker and independent financial adviser has hailed its “scope for further growth” following record results.

Newcastle-based Lycetts saw annual turnover rise £2 million to £25.5 million, with pre-tax profit increasing 11 per cent year-on-year to £3 million.

The company says its performance reflects the vigour of its policies and staff in “a challenging market and volatile economy”.

Charles Foster, chief executive at Lycetts, which last year signed a deal to move its headquarters to Newcastle’s Bank House building, on the new Pilgrim Place development, said he was thrilled with its progress.

He added: “We are delighted by our impressive performance in 2022, underpinned by a robust business strategy and high-quality talent.

“Exceeding an 11 per cent target for new business, along with a high retention rate for existing clients, proved central to our success.

“Despite the hard market, notable gains were achieved across household and commercial lines.

“And the scope for further growth continues as we eye an exciting future from our new headquarters.”

Maven extends key funding scheme deal Finance

A private equity and investment firm has won a contract to continue managing a flagship growth pot.

Maven Capital Partners is overseeing the £20 million Finance Durham Fund.

Founded by Durham County Council and supervised by Business Durham, the scheme has already helped scores of firms grow and create jobs, with Maven administering its progress since 2017.

Michael Dickens, Maven investment manager, said: “We are proud to have backed so many companies, and look forward to engaging with many more.”

Contractor savours work on £12 million college base Construction

A contractor says it is looking forward to helping inspire “the next generation of North East engineers” after securing work on a £12 million learning hub.

Applebridge Construction is supporting the delivery of a new Middlesbrough College Group base.

Due to replace the education provider’s existing TTE Technical site next year, officials say the building will annually nurture hundreds of full-time engineering students, apprentices and adults.

Applebridge, also based in Middlesbrough, has been appointed by Morgan Sindall Construction to deliver foundation works, as well as floor slabs and drainage.

Andy Ray, group operations director, said: “This is an exciting

PD Ports steeled for growth Distribution

A distribution operator says it has strengthened its reputation as the “port of choice for global steel manufacturers” following a 75,000sq ft factory opening.

PD Ports has unveiled a steel coil storage base at Port of Hartlepool, which it says cuts companies’ freight costs by allowing delivery of different products – such as plate or coil – on the same berth.

project to get involved in.

“The engineering and trades industry has been dealing with a skills shortage through recent years, and this investment will bring about new opportunities.”

Zoe Lewis, principal and chief executive of Middlesbrough College Group, added: “Once complete, the facility will complement the already extensive STEM offer at our campus in Middlehaven and cement the college as one of the UK’s largest engineering training providers.

“We’re particularly pleased the new site will allow us to expand into new sectors such as clean, green and renewable energy, retrofit, zerocarbon and offshore high voltage, giving young people greater access to the careers which will shape our futures.”

Providing a

pathway to career success

– see pages 52 and 53

An aerial shot of the site where Middlesbrough College Group’s new TTE Technical base will stand. To the left is the operator’s STEM Centre, with its flagship silver and bronze-specked campus building to the rear

In Brief

A selected round-up of stories from across the region

4Plans have been approved for a £150 million waste-to-energy factory. Circular Fuels says its plant will create at least 50 jobs and convert 220,000 tonnes of non-recyclable household and industrial waste into 50,000 tonnes of renewable fuel every year from a base at Teesworks, near Redcar. It is expected to open in 2025.

4A wealth manager has revealed job expansion plans in a headquarters move. Fairstone is swapping its Boldon base for Nike’s former Sunderland offices, which chief executive Lee Hartley says will create room for at least 120 extra staff. He added: “We have an extensive growth strategy, and our new site will underpin those objectives.”

4Gateshead electrification and powertrain component firm Turntide Technologies is supporting Newton Aycliffe rolling stock maker Hitachi Rail on a battery train trial. Mark Cox, Turntide's transport business unit general manager, said: “We possess the advanced skills to decrease rail sector carbon emissions.”

4Northumberland-based offshore engineer Osbit has opened a Netherlands hub. Bosses say the Rotterdam office marks the “next step in meeting the growing needs of vessel and equipment operators in the Netherlands and wider European region.”

For more news and views across the North East, visit our website @ www.netimesmagazine.co.uk/news

Biotech firm plots product ‘revolution’ with near £500,000 support Environment

A biotechnology operator has secured nearly £500,000 funding it says will drive forward work to “revolutionise” the cosmetic, personal care and pharmaceutical sectors’ green credentials.

HexisLab has been backed by Innovate UK to develop and scale manufacturing processes to replace traditional synthetic and animal-derived product ingredients with environmentally-friendlier alternatives.

The Newcastle-based company says its work will help meet ever-growing consumer demand in a global market

Whyaye looks to future after EY deal Technology

A technology firm says it is relishing “accelerating companies’ transformation journeys” after joining a professional services firm.

Newcastle-based Whyaye is now part of EY.

Officials say the deal will expand EY’s capacity and market presence by leveraging Whyaye’s position within the ServiceNow technology platform that helps companies manage digital workflows.

Maureen Robson-Norman, Whyaye chief executive – who has joined Ernst & Young LLP as a partner – said: “This is an important milestone for Whyaye, and we’re excited to be part of the EY organisation.

“ServiceNow is an incredibly powerful platform, which can help bring significant efficiencies to a business.

“We’re looking forward to working collaboratively with EY teams to accelerate our growth and work with clients on their transformation journeys.”

Alison Kay, EY managing partner for client services in the UK and Ireland, added: “This deal will enhance our thriving consulting services, bringing new capabilities and skills.”

expected to be worth more than $600 billion by 2025.

Dr Olusola Idowu, HexisLab chief executive, said: “We see a significant gap in the market for developing new products that meet consumers' needs without increasing the carbon cost and risk to the environment.”

HexisLab is working alongside Teesside University and BiBerChem Research on the project.

Maureen Robson-Norman, Whyaye chief executive

Dr Olusola Idowu, HexisLab chief executive

Victory in sight – but other goals still to conquer

With Boris Johnson having jumped before he was pushed by the Privileges Committee, the Conservative Party found itself embroiled in yet further controversy, its vision of mitigating significant General Election losses made all the more foggier. Which was good news for Labour – but only to an extent. Because despite its old foe’s extraordinary implosion, there remains great work for the red rose to do to convince good sections of the population it is a viable alternative to Tory rule beyond it not being the party of Sunak, Truss (and formerly Johnson) et al.

Words by Steven Hugill

4It was hardly tanks in Tiananmen Square. Nor was it New York steelworkers lunching in the heavens, Buzz Aldrin sullying his NASAissued white boots with moon dust or John and Yoko pleading for peace from beneath their bed sheets.

But in its own little way, in its own little part of the world, it made for no less a salient moment in time.

Under harsh yellow leisure centre lights, Conservative Darlington MP Peter Gibson surveyed local election ballots on a whiteclothed trestle table.

The news wasn’t good.

Caught mid-reaction by a member of the local press corps, Gibson was snapped as he instinctively raised his left hand to his head, palm pressed against forehead and fringe, as Tory blue evaporated from the voting colour wheel.

After wresting control of Darlington Borough Council for the first time in 2019 – albeit with independent propping – the shipwright’s son

could see draining constituent sentiment had it listing hurriedly towards subsidence.

The image and its meaning, though, extended far beyond the railway town and its interlinking wards, instead feeding into a wider narrative at play across the rest of the North East.

Now, it should be said that forecasting any General Election result through the prism of grassroots political favour comes with no little risk of distortion.

But Darlington’s result, added to other geographies in the south of the region, nevertheless presented some interesting take aways.

As the town shunned Conservative rule, in the process gaining a Labour-dominated coalition with the Liberal Democrats, so too did Middlesbrough’s colours change, with its council walls and mayoral office switching from independent grey to red.

Over in Redcar and Cleveland, Labour again scooped seats as UKIP disappeared, but

swayed not enough to secure a majority, while in Stockton, the Tories picked off independent and Liberal Democrat seats to marginally best its old foe.

In snapshot form, they show the usual flux of local politics.

In wider view, though, they represent a country searching for new direction but lacking the necessary compass and coordinates to truly find it.

And don’t expect the pathway to suddenly clear as the months tick towards the next General Election.

Because Labour, despite its positive national polling forecasts, still remains a tough vote for many.

Although the party these days carries more meat on its bones from the carcass left behind by Jeremy Corbyn, it continues to lack sufficient muscle to dominate the fight.

And, as ever, much of its frailty comes

from a battle with itself, the fall-out from its decision to omit North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll from a North East Mayor longlist a recent case in point.

But what of an alternative?

Well, with the roof of Boris Johnson’s circus having finally caved in following one too many trapeze walks and recordbreakingly bad replacement ringmaster Liz Truss spending more time talking to echo chambers like GB News than MPs in the Commons, the Conservatives’ show is limping to a close.

Rishi Sunak might continue to look into the spotlights, encouraging punters beyond to roll up and be part of the latest incarnation of the Tories' grand show, but nobody is really buying it any longer.

No party could survive and spin its way out of the litany of unmitigated disasters dished up over recent years, not even one where a loyal band of MPs and supporters

continue to genuflect to their apparently wronged deity.

Yet it’s an unavoidable truth that while Labour will assume power whenever Sunak decides to rip the sticking plasters away and calls an election, you can’t escape the feeling it will do so because it isn’t the Conservative Party.

And for the country’s sake, that won’t be enough.

Succeeding is not Sir Kier being a different face to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.

Success will be using the platform it will inevitably inherit to demonstrably change the UK - where the cost of living crisis bites ever harder amid rising interest rates - for the better.

Because if it doesn’t, the country will once again find itself with compass in hand, and one fewer direction in which to take.

What of the future?

Technology

When it comes to artificial intelligence, whether you’re reading a newspaper article, scouring the findings of a well-known search engine, chatting between work colleagues or scrolling through the vast reaches of social media, there is always one constant factor – its impending impact on humanity.

From fears around job losses to security and privacy warnings and claims of a potential weapons uprising, artificial intelligence is a story with huge emotive connotations, causing many to already eschew its advances.

But what of its benefits?

Surely, for a technology created to make lives easier, scope must exist to ensure it co-operates and co-exists with society, rather than leaving it cowed?

Those behind its meteoric rise, like ChatGPT mogul Sam Altman, certainly think so, pointing to voluminous potential benefits across sectors such as health and education, and equally seismic impact across wider society as a whole.

Words by Mark Harrison

Scale-up partner at RTC North

Artificial intelligence: will it make us all redundant?

From BT planning to replace a third of 55,000 jobs with computer systems to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s advisor Mark Clifford warning it could be potent enough to create weapons and “kill many humans” within two years, artificial intelligence is never long out of the headlines. But are the dangers really so grave? Here, Mark Harrison, scale-up partner at RTC North, looks at the more positive aspects of simulating human intelligence and why, despite much forecasting to the contrary, people will always hold the power.

4Artificial intelligence.

How do we control it? Will it take all our jobs? Will it destroy the atmosphere to rid itself of troublesome humans?

We certainly have to keep a close eye on the effects of something programmed to grow so explosively.

Artificial intelligence only came into the public consciousness in November last year, yet its headline-grabbing status means it is given equal, and many times higher, billing than the Ukrainian war and cost of living crisis.

Earlier this year, Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, addressed the US Senate amid fears from the latter over unregulated artificial intelligence tearing out of control and destroying our lives.

And therein lies a crucial issue.

There is too little time being spent thinking about the possible benefits of artificial intelligence, such as the acceleration of research around cancers and Alzheimer’s disease it could help yield.

If we pull the handbrake and heavily regulate artificial intelligence, you can guarantee the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans and various other states won’t.

We have to go with it and use it where we feel it benefits the greater good.

Progress, however quick, has happened before, and we came out it in a better place.

I grew up in the North East in the 1970s when the mines, steelworks and shipyards were closing down.

It was a hard time, and many of my

generation were left behind and didn’t recover.

I chose to leave and seek experience elsewhere, and when I returned ten years ago, the region had been transformed beyond all recognition.

This cycle of decline and renewal of economies has always happened.

Artificial intelligence will only make us all obsolete if we let it.

The development of artificial intelligence and the powerful machine learning models that drive it has limitations; the available processing power and the available electricity to drive the servers it resides on provides an initial buffer to any ‘rise of the machines’.

We humans will always have control.

Much as the fictional, all powerful, humanity exterminating Daleks could be defeated by the humble staircase, if artificial intelligence spins out of control, we have the means to stop it.

Every server needs a humble kettle lead to keep it running, and if things go wrong we can simply pull the plug, which would lead to some kind of lame version of a classic Schwarzenegger flick.

A bigger threat to humanity, in my opinion, is social media and the havoc it continues to wreak on the fabric of society.

It needs regulating, though is probably already at a point where we should shut it down.

The collective sigh of relief heard around the world from doing so would be deafening.

Motoring on…? Manufacturing

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it?

When victorious Brexit supporters unfurled the bunting to celebrate the UK’s EU withdrawal, so too did they speak of opening a new chapter of prosperity.

But things haven’t exactly gone to script.

And now, the automotive sector, a fixture of Britain’s economy through its provision of nearly one million jobs and global links accounting for ten per cent of all UK exports*, is writing a

new plot twist.

With rules of origin – and therefore tariffs – around electric vehicle parts set to change, a number of manufacturers, not least a particularly vociferous Vauxhall, have warned the Government it faces a drastic reduction in UK green motoring output, including potential factory closures, if it doesn’t force a major turn in the road.

*Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders; www.smmt.co.uk/ industry-topics/uk-automotive

registration.

Yet electrified vehicle production accounted for 30 per cent of all vehicles made in the UK.

Rules of origin pose a significant risk to the UK automotive sector, particularly for batteries.

The EU rules on parts sourcing has been in place for several years now but, as we come closer to the deadline in January, we know some manufacturers may be getting concerned that supply chains are not yet matured enough in the UK and Europe to ensure these requirements can be met.

Presently, at least 40 per cent of the content of electric vehicles, and 30 per cent of batteries, must originate from the EU.

From January 2024, though, 45 per cent of the vehicle and 50 per cent to 60 per cent of batteries must include EU content, to avoid additional tariffs.

Words by Paul Butler

Chief executive at North East Automotive Alliance

In the driving seat to make significant change

As carmakers continue to call for a Brexit-related U-turn to avoid costly tariffs they say could pull the handbrake on UK electric vehicle production, Paul Butler, chief executive at North East Automotive Alliance, looks at the region’s green motoring landscape, and how existing and new investments leave it well placed to play a big role in future change.

4

Nissan recently returned to the number one vehicle producer spot in the UK, showing a 16.5 per cent increase on 2021 volumes.

The Qashqai was officially announced as the UK’s favourite car of 2022, the first time in 24 years a British-built vehicle has been the number one seller.

This marks a major coup for the North East, cementing our position as one of the most established and productive manufacturing regions in Europe.

The region has also led the electrification revolution, with a heritage dating back to the 1920s.

Today, the North East is home to Europe’s most successful battery electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, Europe’s first ‘gigabattery’ manufacturing plant, at Envision AESC, and we are the only UK region with full power electronics, motors and drives capability.

However, as a country, are we falling behind our competitors?

In May, electrified vehicles accounted for 54.8 per cent of all new vehicle

Nissan is the only car plant in the UK with a battery plant located nearby, which puts our region in a much better position than other areas.

Nevertheless, to support battery manufacturing in the UK, we must secure the critical supply chain, particularly cathode, anode and electrolyte production, and these are key targets for the Government and Office for Investment.

The North East really is the UK centre for battery manufacturing.

In addition to the UK’s first ‘gigafactory’, there are two further major battery investments from Envision AESC and Recharge Industries, which recently acquired Britishvolt.

We already have electrolyte production, thanks to Mitsubishi Chemicals, in Billingham, near Stockton, and, given our strengths in the chemical sector, I believe the North East is the ideal place to locate cathode and anode production in the UK, as we have the infrastructure, the skills and the battery manufacturers all located in the region.

Increased local content will offer huge opportunities for supply chain companies, as well as inward investment.

The North East is synonymous with passenger vehicle production.

Building for future growth

If continuity is crucial to business momentum, then Kingston is more than moving at pace under recentlyinstalled managing director Paul Carter. Using nearly two decades’ experience that spans from Kingston forerunner Cheviot Housing Association to the present day, he is laying the foundations for the Newcastlebased property management organisation’s next growth phase. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to Paul, to learn more about his plans for market and geographical expansion, which will always be bound by a strong social commitment.

www.kingstonpropertyservices.co.uk

LinkedIn: Kingston

Paul Carter has never been one to stand still.

Right from starting out as a bright accountancy sector 20-something, his natural effervescence came with no little forward motion and desire to effect positive change.

So when the opportunity arose to switch to the social housing sector, and then later channel his energy into helping catalyse the growth of the freshly-seeded property management organisation Kingston, the lure was naturally attractive.

That was more than a decade ago, and now, with the Newcastle-based venture having grown from sapling to deep-rooted inter-regional operator in the private

KingstonFor more information about Kingston’s leasehold block management division, its Open Spaces provision and its Living Spaces sales and lettings agency, call 0330 123 1133.

residential market, recently-appointed managing director Paul is ready to administer another injection of momentum.

The residential sector may be suffering a tempestuous period, with higher inflation and cost of living demands stripping back domestic budgets, but Paul says Kingston – which employs around 100 staff and is the commercial arm of housing provider Bernicia Group – is readily placed to flourish.

Helping raise such prospects is a freshly-unveiled five-year corporate strategy, wherein tenets of market expansion, diversification and technological advances spread across Kingston’s leasehold block management arm, its Open Spaces residential estate management division and its award-winning Living Spaces sales and lettings agency.

Paul says: “A key part of the plan is the absorption and management of growth.

“Block management – which, among other services, oversees property maintenance and service charge collections for apartments across the North East, Cumbria and Yorkshire, has always been our core business.

“But we’ve now hit a period of consolidation over recent years, with demand for apartments, from a development perspective, declining."

“However, our diverse offer – particularly our Open Spaces division – leaves us very confident,” says Paul, who led the estate management enterprise prior to becoming Kingston’s managing director.

He adds: “We’ve now hit the same number of individual customers for Open Spaces – 14,000 – as we have for block management.

“And, over the next five years, we know there will be up to an additional 40,000 or so units coming into management for Open Spaces.

“The division is going to quadruple in size over the next decade,” adds Paul, who joined Kingston’s forerunner Cheviot Housing Association 18 years ago as a finance officer, before moving over to the private residential sector and its present-day progeny under predecessor Colin Ord, who built up the commercial company.

Central to Open Spaces’ thrust, says Paul, will be, somewhat paradoxically, the slowdown of new housebuilding schemes.

He says: “In the past, when development has been at the forefront of builders’ minds, the estate management handover process has, at times, been a bit of a slow-burner.

“But I think we’ll see more growth over the next 18 months, as developers look to hand over developments on a phased basis.”

Expansion too is planned for Living Spaces, along with technological improvements across the commercial business.

Hoping to mirror the successes of its block management and Open Spaces arms, by similarly pushing the Newcastle-based sales and lettings division beyond city centre postcodes, Paul says Kingston will equally grow through refreshed software that meets at the intersection of service efficiency and customer desire.

He says: “We’re looking to see how we can grow Living Spaces organically.

“It’ll be a step-by-step process, but we’re looking at marketing campaigns to promote the brand a little more.

“It operates in a far more competitive market than block management and Open Spaces, but we’re nevertheless confident of pushing it on.”

Paul adds: “And we’ve invested in technology too,

which includes an enhanced version of our integrated internal Qube system.

“It covers every part of the business, from sales enquiries to finance and maintenance, and has an owner portal that quickly filters repair reports to the right departments and allows customers to self serve.

“Things were always previously paper and postal driven, but clients are increasingly asking if they can have bills emailed or pay online, for example, and we’ve been champing at the bit to improve efficiencies and deliver such services.

“We want to be increasingly fleet of foot, and further investment in Qube will allow us to be so.”

And with client satisfaction at the core of the new corporate strategy and paving the way for further growth, Paul says it will help strengthen another intrinsic element of Kingston’s operations – its contribution to its Ashington-headquartered parent Bernicia Group’s benevolent fund.

Kingston profits are gift aided to Bernicia and fund The Bernicia Foundation, which provides grants of up to £1000 for “inspirational young people” under 24, and up to £10,000 to charities and voluntary organisations.

Paul adds: “The Foundation gives us real purpose and is fantastic in allowing people to see what we are driving the commercial business for.

“We use our successes to help others; we’re not a profit thirsty plc.”

Property_ Advertising feature_ Kingston

North East Institute of TechnologyNorth East Institute of Technology includes New College Durham, East Durham College, Middlesbrough College, Sunderland College, Northumberland College, Tyne Coast College and NA College Trust.

It also partners with Newcastle University and counts Esh Group and Nissan as anchor businesses, with more than 3000 students having so far enrolled on its courses.

For more information, visit www.neiot.ac.uk

Creating a skills environment fit for the next generation

Marrying skills provision with evolving workplace demands has long been a problematic union for business. But dynamic transformation is afoot, thanks to North East Institute of Technology. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to Sharon Grant, the skills provider’s director; Alison Maynard, deputy principal at institute lead education partner New College Durham; and Darush Dodds, director of corporate affairs and social value at institute sector lead for construction Esh Group, to find out more.

www.neiot.ac.uk

LinkedIn: North East Institute of Technology

www.eshgroup.co.uk

LinkedIn: Esh Group

Sharon Grant grips a laser scanner’s support arm, Alison Maynard mirroring her pose with the touch of an automatic level’s tripod leg.

Given North East Institute of Technology’s (NEIoT) hands-on approach to training, their tactility provides an appropriate precis.

But the meaning runs much deeper.

For in the centre of the shot, between institute director Sharon and New College Durham deputy principal Alison, smiles Esh Group’s Darush Dodds.

With education and industry standing shoulder-toshoulder, the apparatus is now metaphoric of NEIoT’s place at the juncture of learning and the workplace, moreover its collaborative surveying of the STEM landscape to deliver step-change training.

Pictured by the architectural equipment, from left to right, are Alison Maynard, New College Durham deputy principal; Darush Dodds, Esh Group director of corporate affairs and social value; and Sharon Grant, North East Institute of Technology director

Launched three years ago as a founding member of a flagship Government programme to put business at the centre of English technical curriculum development and delivery, NEIoT provides employer-focused, practical education across advanced manufacturing, engineering, construction and digital, via higher-level qualifications.

At its core is a network of further education colleges, higher education and business operators – which includes lead education partner New College Durham and lead construction partner Esh Group – that attunes training to existing skills shortages while identifying future workplace demands.

“We deal with what employers want,” says Sharon,

“developing courses in collaboration with industry –rather than picking them off a shelf – to create a onestop talent shop.”

Integral to NEIoT’s provision are its employer consultatory boards, which include a construction advisory group chaired by Darush.

Sharon says: “The employer voice is so important; it allows for discussion around skills shortages and associated recruitment frustrations, and helps identify ways to address future challenges, like the increased adoption of technology.

“It also ensures training matches the workplace; we’ve bought equipment through our employer voice, which we know is used by firms across the region.

“But learning isn’t just about academic knowledge, it’s about practical experience too.

“And by working with business, and combining our voices, we’re able to showcase the different educational routes into employment, in turn breaking down the concept that a student must study GCSEs, A-levels and a degree before finding work.”

Alison adds: “That is the beauty of NEIoT; it creates challenging dialogue around action to make students appointable.

“And that’s important, because if we’re not providing the best skills support, for both now and the future, we risk losing out to other parts of the UK and Europe.

“Retrofitting and modern methods of construction (MMC), for example, are major areas of focus at present, around which there is a lot of talk.

“But NEIoT is doing something about it, developing courses to help employers address the green skills agenda.”

Such focus, says Darush, will be fundamental to the growth of companies like Bowburn-based construction and built environment firm Esh Group.

“As an employer, we want colleges to provide young people with the right qualifications, attributes, skills and behaviours for jobs, both now and in the future,” says Darush, Esh Group’s director of corporate affairs and social value.

He says: “There is no point in teaching people about ‘x’ if we need ‘y’.

“And that’s why we jumped at the chance to become an NEIoT anchor partner and lead for the construction sector.

“As a company, we’ve long had a commitment to helping people into jobs, to training and upskilling them and to improving social mobility and industry perceptions.

Esh GroupEsh Group is a leading privately-owned construction, development and property services business. Operating across the North of England, it provides civil engineering, affordable housing, refurbishment, retrofit, private housing and commercial build services to the public and private sectors.

For more information, visit www.eshgroup. co.uk

“And this collaboration – which builds on existing relationships with New College Durham and the other further education partners – means we can look at additions to the curriculum we know are needed around areas like MMC, which is only going to grow over the coming years.”

He adds: “But NEIoT also provides us with the opportunity to shape further areas of the curriculum, like new apprenticeships.

“I want someone who can work in our social value team, for example, and there is great potential, through our place within NEIoT, to create the first social value apprenticeship in the country.”

The commitment to change will be further amplified by the September launch of a digital ambassadors programme, which Darush says will enliven learners’ journeys through the experiences of partner contractors, clients and consultants.

He adds: “It really motivates students when they see something applied in real-life.

“It could be a consultant showing how they designed a project in Revit software and made it in augmented reality, or a product donated for teaching.”

And such learning enhancement, says Alison, will be fundamental to NEIoT as it prepares to meet future skills needs.

She adds: “We have our curriculum, but we know there remain gaps to fill as digital use increases, sectors change and others, like space, continue to grow.

“And we’re working with our strategic partners to look at the next five years, to ensure we maintain our progress.”

Building on strong foundations

With a debut appearance in law firm Ward Hadaway’s North East Fastest 50 list capping a period of significant financial and physical growth, JT Dove is a company building at pace. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to the employee-owned construction, heating and plumbing parts supplier’s financial director Jon Archer, to learn more about its successes and how its past is helping guide its future.

www.wardhadaway.com

@WardHadaway

www.jtdove.co.uk

Facebook: JT Dove Building Materials

The past exists never too far from the present at JT Dove.

Just feet from a loading yard, where tradespeople stack goods around the latest hardware in equally modern vans, late Victorian cloth-capped labourers stare from sunken eyes on a head office wall.

Their gaze falls to the regimented formation of a 1920s truck fleet, its collective size delightfully incongruous to JT Dove’s modern-day successors.

Meanwhile, in a red-carpeted, first-floor boardroom, on an intricately carved model lighthouse, the words ‘service’ and ‘efficiency’ blaze from white plastic as if shining from its lantern pane, the further descriptor ‘co-operation’ engraved vertically between tiny mock windows on the building’s tower.

JT Dove’s history, though, is more than a cache of black and white photographs and whimsical miniatures.

Society and the commercial landscape may have evolved since the photographic flashlights popped and a sculptor’s chisel made its last mark, but the ethos sewn into the business during those yesteryear days remains just as tightly stitched into the Newcastlefounded, 154-year-old independent builders’ merchant’s fabric today.

And it continues to drive great progress.

Abiding by the very tenets set out so creatively on its novelty sea-based navigational aid, themselves a product of patriarch Herbert Dove – who moved the company to employee-owned status in 1954 – the

business surmounted COVID-19 and subsequent additional economic tremors to chalk a 136 per cent rise in pre-distribution profits over the last three years.

That momentum also included 17 per cent average turnover growth across its last three sets of accounts, a feat enough to earn JT Dove a debut appearance at number 46 on Ward Hadaway’s latest North East Fastest 50 list, which celebrates privately-owned businesses with the largest average annual turnover growth rates.

“Our absolute focus on customer interests all stems from Herbert,” says financial director Jon Archer of JT Dove’s figurehead, who continues to survey proceedings from a large boardroom portrait in the company’s Newburn Haugh Industrial Estate headquarters, west of Newcastle.

He says: “We offer good prices and always have good stock levels, which sets us apart from competitors.

“And for that to boost financial performance to the extent of making the Fastest 50 list was amazing.

“We had a huge reaction to our inclusion; I received more than 100 messages, many of which were from

people I’d not heard from for years.

“But to record such financial results requires great service,” adds Jon, whose timeline at JT Dove began in 2019.

“And we pride ourselves on the level and value of advice we give to customers; anyone using a branch is never met with a ‘here are your materials, off you go’ attitude.

“Yes, we have the products, but we also have the knowledge – and that makes for a compelling offer.

“For example, these days you don’t get floorboards, you get boards with which you floor a house.

“That boarding comes with a varied thickness rate, and our advice has, on a number of occasions, ensured builders had the correct supplies to carry out the job.”

And such close connections now extend to the internet, where the innate customer care of JT Dove –which is HSBC’s oldest North East customer – melds with modern-day convenience via an online sales portal.

Jon says: “The internet opens a market far beyond the North East, and has brought a new dimension to sales.

“A significant percentage of what

“Making the Fastest 50 list was amazing. We had a huge reaction to our inclusion; I received more than 100 messages, many of which were from people I’d not heard from for years”

Jon Archer, JT Dove financial director, at the firm's Newburn Haugh Industrial Estate head office and depot

Photography by Jamie Haslam

we sell online is workwear, whereas very little of that is sold through a branch.

“A lot of builders’ merchants don’t believe an online presence is needed because the average customer age is around the early 50s mark.

“But the demographic is changing, and increasing numbers of more technologically-minded customers are coming through.

“And that’s why, for us, online represents a big part of our growth.”

Similarly central has been the steady expansion of JT Dove’s branch estate, with openings that straddled the pandemic across Newcastle city centre and South Shields augmenting an already bustling portfolio that stretches from Teesside to the Scottish Borders via Cumbria.

The business – which launched specialist plumbing and heating branches in the late 2000s – has further added to its network through acquisitions, with a Builders Warehouse site in Shotton Colliery, near Peterlee,

“Our board changes represent an opportunity to build and refresh. But the business’ future direction won’t be removed from what has gone before”

bought in early 2021, and Wearside family-founded wood supplier and staircase maker Nordstrom Timber absorbed through a merger late last year.

Jon says: “We are always looking for growth – the bigger we grow, the more we’re able to service customer needs.

“One way to do that is by taking on a company; another is to buy an empty site and create a base – as we did in Consett in 2018; and another is to acquire a site with an existing warehouse.

“Nordstrom represents the first of those three and marks a massive move for us; once fully up and running, it has the potential to be our biggest site.

“A lot of what JT Dove does centres on timber, so there was a natural fit between the businesses.

“But it will also provide an important lead into new customers, particularly the retail market.

“Around 90 per cent of JT Dove’s customers are traders, with the other ten per cent retail.

“With Nordstrom, though, it is the

other way around, with retail sales making up a significant amount of the total, so the deal provides a further route into that market.”

And Jon says such presence will be fundamental in powering further growth in a marketplace that continues to operate amid no little financial strain, as will – typically – JT Dove’s past, with relatively recent boardroom changes to managing and commercial director personnel set to supplement its long-established ethos.

He adds: “There is a nervousness around the wider economy, but our diversification means we’re very well placed to ride out anything put in front of us.

“We deal with the housebuilders, but a more overwhelming element of our operations centres around repairs – which will never go away – and the white van man who comes to your home to assess a problem before coming to us for necessary parts.

“And we believe the momentum will continue.

“Our board changes represent an opportunity to build and refresh.

“But the business’ future direction won’t be removed from what has gone before.”

With a growing estate portfolio and successful online business complementing a rich history of more than 150 years, JT Dove is a fantastic addition to the latest North East Fastest 50 list, writes Tom Pollard.

As one of the region’s oldest employers, what is particularly impressive about JT Dove is how it is continuing to grow at a considerable rate.

For a business that has been around for so long, its progress is phenomenal, and it is testament to the commitment of its management team and workforce.

A lot of the larger builders’ merchants, which today represent JT Dove’s main competition, are backed by private equity, and the fact it keeps on expanding against such a backdrop, makes its achievements very impressive indeed.

Such flexibility was highlighted perfectly during the pandemic, which the business rode very well thanks to its decision to increase stock levels when others weren’t.

Given JT Dove’s ownership structure, it was able to take such a long-term view – and it more than paid off.

It is also a very acquisitive firm, one that is keen to bolt on businesses where they fit its structure – its Nordstrom Timber deal marks a perfect example – and expand with new depot sites or existing operators, which further strengthen its geographical spread and, therefore, market offer.

It all makes for a company more than deserving of its place on the latest North East Fastest 50 list, an achievement from which its team should take great pride.

Tom Pollard is a partner in the corporate department at Ward Hadaway. He advises clients on acquisitions, disposals, investments, management buyouts and buy-ins, corporate structures and reorganisations.

He has extensive experience of working on public and private company transactions across a variety of sectors.

Tom Pollard, a corporate partner at Ward Hadaway

The Big Question

With Chancellor Jeremy Hunt recently advocating workers return to the “default” office, rather than completing tasks at home or from remote locations, what do you see as the future labour landscape? Is the country’s chief fiscal planner right in asserting a central location would boost creativity, or do you believe there is greater value in maintaining employees’ empowerment outside the traditional workplace?

DAVID GIBBS Commercial director UK Land Estates

Finding a healthy balance between the workplace and home space is what really pays off for individuals and the businesses they work for.

Progressive firms will promote a healthy mix of home working and office-based activity.

Factories and offices thrive on communication and collaboration, and lose something when part of the workforce isn’t there, while homeworkers face higher energy and heating bills.

However, there are benefits, with productivity increasing away from distractions, not to mention zero commutes and therefore fewer vehicles on roads, meaning reduced emissions.

As the owners of some of the region’s largest industrial sites, we want people at work, buying lunch in local cafes, spending in local shops and working out in local gyms.

But we recognise too that successful firms are agile, and that they no longer need such rigid

working practices.

However, maybe the really successful businesses are the ones that make sure workspaces are places people want to be – ecofriendly open plan offices with collaboration areas, natural light and outdoor green space.

JAMES SILVER Managing director Landid

We firmly believe the best offices unlock the potential and creativity of the teams that work there, and that’s why we’re developing Maker & Faber at Riverside Sunderland.

We’re absolutely certain demand will remain, long into the future, for high-quality, welllocated office space.

Being in an office not only promotes collaboration among colleagues and businesses, a strong team ethic and – by virtue of that – improved professional development, but

well-designed office spaces are made to deliver an environment that is conducive to an increased sense of wellbeing, which supports effective working practices.

Though home working and the flexibility it affords has a place, the office still works.

SOPHIE ASHCROFT Director

56° North

The pandemic was, for many, the proverbial kick up the backside we needed to slow down, reprioritise and realise the world won’t stop spinning if one email isn't sent.

In a world where 76 per cent of mothers and 92 per cent of fathers with dependent children are employed, and with childcare costs spiralling, working from home is a game-changer.

It’s an untaxable and attractive employee benefit giving parents time with their children like they’ve never had before.

It also provides space to think; space to book that boiler appointment, tackle the washing or care for a loved one, all while getting on with the working day.

But you can have too much of a good thing. Fully remote working, while cost efficient, can squeeze the joy.

There is something about an impromptu brainstorm over a cuppa in the office kitchen with colleagues; it’s where some of the best ideas come from.

For me, hybrid working is the answer.

It is more efficient, creates a happier workforce, is better for the planet and provides vital funding for local economies.

But it comes with a word of warning; working from home is based on trust, empowerment and

responsibility between employee and employer.

When that trust erodes, working from home loses its shine.

SIM HALL Managing director Populus Select

I don’t think there’s a one-sizefits-all approach to whether office or home working is best for all businesses and individuals.

We work with STEM businesses and, obviously, you can’t set up a lab in your spare room.

There is no doubt that returning to the office is best for the economy; it drives footfall for city centre hospitality businesses and maintains commercial property values.

There is also a strong argument that more junior employees learn, either directly or through osmosis, when they are in the same environment as more seasoned colleagues, so office working is therefore vital to progressing their careers.

Similarly face-to-face interactions facilitate spontaneous idea generation, improve communication and collaboration, and create a sense of belonging among colleagues.

Working remotely does, of course, have time and money-saving benefits for employees, and it reduces commuting emissions and gives staff a sense of empowerment.

But I can’t see justification for making it the norm. A hybrid pattern, which spreads the benefits of both options, seems the logical compromise, and one, I’m sure, the Chancellor probably agrees with.”

Networking at Flok

Middlesbrough’s vibrant co-working space Flok was the venue for a richly informative session on employee branding and workplace culture, alongside Jo Davies and Max Freer. The duo told guests about their new venture Alchemy Culture, and its place within the ever-shifting employment landscape. The event also featured informal networking, with attendees taking away copies of the May/June issue of North East Times Magazine, which featured Boro boy Chris Kamara as its cover star.

All the fun of the fair

There were thrills aplenty as The Hoppings made a triumphant return to Newcastle’s Town Moor. Featuring hundreds of attractions and sideshows, Europe’s largest funfair once again sent thousands of visitors wild with excitement. And organisers have told North East Times Magazine they’re already planning next year’s event to make it an “even more memorable” occasion. Ryan Crow, of organiser Crow Events, said: “We are delighted to have had another fantastic year, with huge visitor numbers and a really positive reaction to new initiatives, like the extension of Feast Street and programme of live and children’s entertainment." Photographer Meg Jepson captures the colour, carnival atmosphere and characters that make up the historic funfair.

Photo story: The Hoppings

Photography: Meg Jepson

“My creative inspiration usually comes from conversations I have. I love talking to people wherever I go and it often sparks an idea”

“Feeling connected to the outdoors, exploring new areas and speaking to communities excites me and always brings me new, creative avenues”

“I’ve documented The Hoppings for three years now, and I love the sense of community and togetherness, the colour and the lights”

Meg Jepson, photographer

Haines Watts

For more information on how Haines Watts’ expert team could provide your business with vital health check support, contact Michael on 0191 269 9960 or email mcole@hwca.com

Keeping your business fit for a healthy future

If a healthy mind begets a healthy body, then what of a healthy business? Too often, however, tending to an organisation’s long-term wellbeing – particularly for owner managers at the cut and thrust of the commercial world – is a challenging order. Help, though, is at hand. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to Michael Cole, associate partner at accountancy and business advisory firm Haines Watts, about how companies can not only retain their vigour but impel new energy to boost their pursuit of success.

www.haineswatts.co.uk

@haineswatts

Take a look at your wrist; what do you see?

Like many of us, you’re likely staring at a fitness tracker and its quarry of spiking heart rates, exercise regimes, calorie consumption and sleep patterns. Now look at your business; are you able to mine similarly salient health insights? Or is its condition being affected by a lack of real-time performance analysis?

Because, in a world of swirling financial sentiment, where inflationary, interest rate, energy price and supply chain flux squeezes margins and impacts staff wellbeing and a business’ ability to retain

talent, understanding an organisation’s wellbeing has arguably never been more important.

And for owner managers, whose personal health is bound inextricably to the fitness of their commercial ventures, the significance is yet more magnified.

“It’s imperative businesses are proactive and scan the horizon for change,” says Michael Cole, associate partner at accountancy and business advisory firm Haines Watts.

“They must be aware of the environment in which they’re operating while tracking data to ensure detailed focus on areas like cashflow, stock levels and profitability.

“Lack of visibility, lack of understanding and lack of adequate information can lead to bad decisionmaking and poor financial performance.

“That hasn’t changed for hundreds of years.”

A key facet in taking such initiative, says Michael, is an unswerving commitment to technology.

Flagging HMRC’s recent decision to close its VAT registration helpline – so long relied upon by firms to expedite applications – he says companies must harness the numerous benefits of digital operations, such as the greater support afforded to pursuing late payments.

He says: “As a business, it’s all about taking a step back and looking at things from a distance.

“It’s so important to plan for the longer term and understand how an organisation – even if things are going well – can create extra value by making small changes that materially add to operations.

“Having the ability to comprehensively understand a company’s working capital requirements, and any impacts of late payments, for example, is vital to future planning.”

Michael adds: “HMRC’s tag line is digital by default, and the closure of its VAT registration helpline is a sure sign of its focus on that sphere.

“And within such change, many businesses will go through their own digital transformation.

“But it is vital they continue the journey beyond their interactions with HMRC, and understand the opportunities offered by software, like tools which automatically email clients with a payment link when an invoice becomes seven days overdue, for example.”

While providing a conduit for potential greater financial security, however, Michael says such adoption will additionally aid owner managers’ physical and emotional wellbeing which, for many, remains heavily strained following the pandemic and subsequent economic and geopolitical events.

He says: “Being an entrepreneur is stressful and exhausting, and many have become tired and in need of a break after riding the storm of recent years.

“But there remains a tough period ahead, and owner managers need to continue putting in the work – and key to that is ensuring they have the right information to hand.

“Tracking cashflow forecasts, cost drivers and sales pipelines, for example, doesn’t guarantee success, but it does provide firms with more than a fighting chance.

“And that’s important in the ever-changing world.

“Some businesses have gone through redundancies, utilised the apprenticeship route and gone as far as changing lightbulbs to make their cost bases as lean as possible – but have then had to react to the national minimum wage rise.

“And others are going through the different demands brought by succession planning.”

Michael adds: “Change can sometimes make for difficult conversations in the short-term.

“But by investing in robust information management practises, which allow for the conducting of comprehensive health checks, owner managers are giving their businesses the best chance of success.”

The Endeavour Partnership -

As the largest independent commercial law firm in the Tees Valley, The Endeavour Partnership is experienced in all aspects of business law. Recognised for its specialist departments and multiple layers of expertise, the firm offers commercial legal solutions that go beyond static advice, and is committed to producing innovative options for clients while demonstrating business-focused thinking.

Empowering firms to thrive in an employees’ world

In a landscape of exponential employee empowerment, never has the need for potent people management been more necessary. And helping companies ensure the two marry together is The Endeavour Partnership. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to Laura Wilson, a senior associate in the Stockton-based firm’s employment law and HR team, to learn more about its HR Conversations initiative, which combines peer-to-peer collaboration with invaluable practical support.

www.endeavour.law

@Endeavour_law

In times of challenge, we’re all appreciative of an empathetic ear.

Businesses, of course, are no different.

And in today’s unpredictable commercial environment, where rising financial forces collide with increasing employee empowerment – and the robust people management frameworks they command – a sympathetic shoulder has arguably never been more important.

Relief then for The Endeavour Partnership, which is combining its place as Tees Valley’s largest independent commercial law firm with a concerted embracing of employers’ shifting needs.

A central plank of this is the Stockton-based operator’s fixed-fee, customisable Navigate HR support suite, which guides businesses of all sizes through day-to-day employment law and HR-related issues to business immigration, data protection, management training and employment documentation.

Equally fundamental is its HR Conversations programme.

Launched late last year as a Navigate offshoot, it melds perception with practicality, using quarterly, Chatham House-style, peer-to-peer breakfast gatherings and associated workshops to catalyse notable transformation across HR practice.

“Employees are an absolute asset within a business, but many are facing up to great challenges in a massively changing market,” says Laura Wilson, a senior associate in The Endeavour Partnership’s employment law and HR team.

“And that was the basis for HR Conversations’ founding.

“Bringing our clients together, as a sounding board, has allowed us to build so many fantastic relationships, and HR Conversations is now helping build relationships between clients.

“And from those, we were increasingly finding clients – no matter their sector or size – were coming up against the same issues.

“So we thought, ‘why not get HR professionals together in the same place, to share ideas, insights and tips?’

“We lead on topics, but events are very much driven by what clients wish to discuss – and they have been very well received.

“People have made connections they wouldn’t otherwise have done, and we’ve seen a number stay after events to chat further with peers.”

“They appreciate the learning but also the reassurance provided by HR Conversations that they’re not on their own facing certain issues, and it leaves them feeling empowered to make positive change,” adds Laura, who is also a business immigration specialist.

Each gathering hangs on a topical hook, with the first analysing HR’s inherent place within firms’ recruitment

and retention strategies and a more recent session looking at leadership, in particular the importance of arming bosses with requisite people management skills as they climb the ladder.

Laura says: “HR is playing a massive role within organisations as employee markets evolve, with HR professionals now having a seat at the table to help deliver quite different strategies.

“And, as a firm, we are proud to be part of that change.

“Through HR Conversations, we’ve helped clients come up with new ideas and areas for potential change, like ensuring the right flexibility exists alongside additional benefits – which aren’t always financial – to ensure staff are happy and comfortable.

“And we’ve looked at the importance of not just maintaining conversation but being transparent in communication; if employees can buy into a firm’s activity, it provides much better scope for their retention.”

Laura adds: “And this is equally key when looking at managers.

“HR professionals are great at managing people, but gaps still exist when it comes to some managers.

“A person in a senior position has got there because they’re great at their job, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re great at managing people.

“Others, too, can find management quite daunting, given they were once part of the team they’re now supervising.”

And such limitations, says Laura, are only further amplified when emotionally charged HR processes, such as disciplinary measures, and performance and salary reviews, are factored into the equation.

To address such, The Endeavour Partnership provides management training support, which allows participants to tackle real-world challenges – such as a previouslyheld mock employment tribunal – to sharpen knowledge and effect subsequent learnings in the workplace.

Laura says: “We’re working with HR professionals and their managers on what can be difficult conversations.

“No two situations will ever be the same, but by upskilling through live experiences, we are helping clients create consistent approaches that empower managers and make them feel much more comfortable and enabled to do their jobs.”

The firm’s experts will lead on this later this year, with

To learn more about Navigate HR and HR Conversations, and for more information about the latter’s planned disciplinary process masterclass at Yarm School on October 24, visit www.endeavour. law or contact 01642 610300.

a masterclass on the disciplinary process – diarised after being identified as a key topic by HR Conversations' participants – planned for Yarm School, on October 24.

Laura says: “You can read about maintaining professionalism in a book, but seeing something firsthand, like the body language of a meeting’s chairperson, provides much more insight.

“The workshop will set a fictional disciplinary issue, with our experiences as a firm used to frame allegations and lay out the process’ different steps.

“And because of that, it will include issues we see regularly – like an employee apportioning blame to others, or wanting to be accompanied by a person who cannot be involved in the process – to reflect reality.”

Laura adds: “We help clients facilitate change, but we go beyond what is expected.

“Our expert support, through programmes like HR Conversations, meets clients’ unique needs and ultimately puts them on a path towards success.”

HIM HER

&

Tea and biscuits. Ant and Dec. Gin and tonic. All things that just wouldn’t work without the other. A bit like Lucy Gardiner and Darren Richardson, really. Bringing words and design together with a dash of creativity, their eponymous strategic brand communications firm Gardiner Richardson is marking 25 years in business. Here, they sit down with Vicki Henderson to talk friendship, the march of technology and the power of optimism.

4“I think, often, you just get lucky in life, and you meet the right people.

“And I think that when we set the business up, we were pretty lucky we met at the right time for each other,” muses Darren Richardson.

Relationships are at the heart of any commercial venture.

But when a business’ very foundations are built on the bond between just two people, it’s vital.

Just ask Darren and his business partner Lucy Gardiner.

Working side-by-side for 25 years –having been friends and co-workers for a few years longer – at their self-titled brand communications agency, their camaraderie, trust and belief in one another has stood the test of time.

Based in Newcastle’s Trafalgar Street, the firm works with brands across the North East to the wider world, using creative thinking to help them stand out and make their messages resonate with target markets.

Lucy, the PR expert, and Darren, a graphic designer, met in the mid-1990s at a Newcastle ad agency, one which ‘tacked on’ a bit of PR and design work.

The idea of setting up on their own was a pipedream, something occasionally discussed in the pub, until the day the ad agency went into administration.

“In the mid-1990s, Newcastle was renowned for having very strong advertising agencies, which might have a bit of PR or design on the side; there was no such thing as a standalone PR and creative agency,” says Lucy.

“I was already working at an ad agency and Darren came in as creative director.

“We ended up working on a new business pitch together and started looking at an approach that, rather than just jumping straight in and looking at a big advertising campaign, was actually getting to the heart of an organisation, its brand and what it stood for.

“It was quite a different approach to take and we thought, ‘this is what we

should be doing’.

“And then the agency went into administration, because although the PR and design parts of the business had been doing well, the main advertising section wasn’t.

“We felt there was never going to be a better opportunity to take that step and give it a go, and that we’d probably regret it if we didn’t.”

Despite offers to set up a new agency out of the ashes of the previous firm, this time focusing on the more successful PR and design elements, the pair struck out on their own path.

Darren, who had returned to his native North East after ten years working in a creative agency looking after global airline and petroleum brands, says: “I think it’s about chemistry.

“You just hit it off.

“Me and Luce have always shared that sense of doing things properly and doing things well, and having a real sense of craft in everything you do.

Words by Vicki Henderson

Photography by Ben Benoliel

“We felt there was a really big opportunity in the North East at the time to bring those two different disciplines together – words and pictures, if you like – they’re both equally valid in the business.”

The pair laugh as they recall the early days of their firm, which they set up with the support of four financial backers, including Mark Thompson and Peter Buchan, of Ryder Architecture, as well as Lucy’s mum and stepdad Austin, who had a corporate background working for Northumbrian Water.

“I had to go to Lucy’s mum’s house and meet them both,” smiles Darren.

“It wasn’t a great start because I got lost; I couldn’t find their house.

“I remember sitting there saying, ‘it’s alright, I don’t want to marry her, I just want to go into business with her’.”

“It was like a work husband, taking him back to meet the parents!” adds Lucy.

Darren says: “I’m an eternal optimist, so I ended up sitting there saying, ‘honestly, don’t worry, it’s gonna be great, we’re going to smash it’.

“Having Mark and Peter involved was absolutely invaluable to us.

“I think they remembered starting out and saw something in us; they had so much knowledge and experience to pass on.”

Now sole owners of the business, Lucy and Darren oversee a team of 25, having started with just two employees.

A creative agency focused solely on PR and design was considered unusual in the late nineties, but two early client acquisitions helped it be taken seriously in the region.

“We were something a little bit different,” says Lucy.

“And we were very fortunate some of our first clients included Sage and Ward Hadaway.

“Straightaway, they gave us a bit of credibility.

“It got us off to a really good start with some great clients and gave us the chance to build some great relationships.

“And we still have those relationships with them.”

“I think our relationship is this sort of infectious catalyst,” adds Darren.

“We build great relationships because we’re interested in people, and we want to understand what they’re trying to achieve.

“It’s not done because we want to try and be clever; it’s because we’re genuinely interested.

“What gets me out of bed in the morning is really trying to understand and help organisations and build relationships with them, and use those relationships to help create greater value for them.”

The pair remain hands-on in the company, keeping a flat management structure and working alongside their team in an open plan studio.

Of course, a lot has changed in the last 25 years, not least the march of the internet and social media, and further advances in technology.

“I remember our mobile phones were like walkie-talkies when I started,” laughs Lucy.

“And I think over the years we’ve probably got sucked into, ‘ohh, websites are the new thing, so everyone’s got to have a website’.

“You can get distracted by new platforms, though you need to embrace them where a brand has a voice and the technology that changes how you do that.

“Darren and I have come to the realisation that actually the heart of Gardiner Richardson hasn’t fundamentally changed, and nor should it.”

Darren adds: “I think that’s how you learn as a business.

“No business should ever be frightened to give things a go.

“Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s learning.

“The other big thing is the pace of working life for people.

“That comes with an excitement and enthusiasm, but it also comes with its challenges, like managing expectation.

“And attention spans,” he finishes. “They’ve just gone.”

In an effort to counteract the rising pace of life, Gardiner Richardson works with organisations to create ‘headspace’ – the time to have a face-to-face session in the studio, bouncing around ideas and reflecting on what they aim to achieve.

Darren says: “Trying to understand the heart of an organisation and its purpose and what it’s trying to achieve – those two things used to be quite simple. Now they’re quite complex.

“But the theory is still the same. It’s just there’s now more to consider.

“What businesses say and do has become more important.

“Building trust with consumers and businesses and brands, being able to connect in a meaningful way, is more important than ever.”

Another change in 25 years is the rise of data – a double-edged sword that allows firms to see, in real-time, their levels of interest and engagement, but which can also leave businesses paralysed with indecision.

“Our job is often to give the confidence to people to understand all the data, because it is profoundly useful,” says Lucy.

“But sometimes the sheer amount of data can be like a spiders web to clients, and they need some clarity.

“We can help them interpret the data to something that’s authentic to the business but also relevant to an audience, a kind of magic moment where you find that little space where you think, ‘that feels right’.”

The pandemic brought change for all, not least to working patterns and the boom in online communication.

Gardiner Richardson has used this to its advantage, expanding its reach beyond its North East heartland to work with new clients in London, Europe and the wider world.

The firm has also increased staff numbers since the pandemic, something which led to its first round of employees who were born after Gardiner Richardson’s

Gardiner Richardson

inception 25 years ago.

“That was a very scary moment when we realised,” laughs Lucy.

“But I think what’s nice is that the younger generation come in with a slightly different dynamic now – traditionally, you came in very inexperienced and learned your craft as you spent time in an organisation.

“But now, in a world of TikTok and other new platforms, some of the younger generation might not have the experience in communications as a whole, but actually they live and breathe social platforms.

“You need to embrace that and give them a place at the table because they have a real insight to share.

“It then gives them the confidence to have a voice and play a real part.”

With its core team made up of homegrown talent and new hires, Lucy and Darren agree things are looking good.

And as they reflect on their success, and the potential of another 25 years working together, they agree their differing personalities, strengths and weaknesses will remain at the heart of the business.

“We have similar principles, but with different characters,” says Darren.

“You just get lucky. How lucky are we that we just happened to meet each other?

“I would never have wanted to do this on my own.

“I’ve heard horror stories over the years

of people who have been in business with a partner, and it hasn’t worked out.

“It reminds you that we are very blessed in terms of the relationship, because the relationship Lucy and I have sets the tone for the business.”

Lucy adds: “Where Darren’s very, very good, I’m not so good, and where I’m good, Darren’s not so good.

“Darren’s very much the optimist and everything is always achievable.

“And I’m the bad cop.

“And I think we come to a great compromise that what we do is aspirational but achievable.

“And that’s what works very, very well for us.”

Perspective Financial Group

Operating from more than 30 bases across the UK, including sites in Newcastle, Darlington and Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Perspective’s local offices provide financial planning advice on matters including retirement, later life and long-term care planning, inheritance tax, investments, shareholder protection and corporate planning.

If you would like to speak to a member of the Perspective team, call 0191 217 3340, 01325 289400 or 01423 810210.

Plan now to prosper in the future

A high-level panel event featuring two prominent North East business leaders, and led by Perspective (North East) Ltd alongside law firm Weightmans and RMT Accountants & Business Advisers, provided key insight for owners and managers around securing organisations’ long-term futures.

www.pfgl.co.uk

@perspectivefgl

Learn lessons from your mistakes; understand the value of investor support; and never underestimate the importance of futureproofing your business.

Those were just three of many key take aways from a recent event, held by Perspective (North East) Ltd alongside Weightmans and RMT Accountants & Business Advisers, on securing organisations’ long-term futures.

Held at Gateshead’s PROTO building, the seminar – organised in association with North East Times Magazine – was attended by business owners from across the region and covered a raft of subjects, from succession planning and personal estate and wealth planning to shareholder protection, managing relationship breakdowns and key employee incentives.

Guests heard from Raman Sehgal, founder of pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector communications agency ramarketing, and Ben Quigley,

executive chair at Newcastle integrated marketing agency Different Narrative.

Both regaled audience members with stories of their past, with Raman highlighting the milestone – and nervous – moments on ramarketing’s journey from Gateshead flat to international operator, with Ben, a former England and Wales chair of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, recounting his experiences of Different Narrative’s growth.

Further speakers included Trevor Clark, director of

Perspective (North East) Ltd, who provided essential background information on shareholder protection.

Duncan Reid, partner in Weightmans LLP’s corporate team, and Louise Miller, partner in the firm’s wills, trusts and estates team, stressed the importance of the guidance provided by an experienced legal team, from set up to growth and development of a business.

And those in attendance also heard from Michael Cantwell, corporate finance director at RMT Accountants and Business Advisors, who addressed employee incentivisation and gave an insight into preparing an organisation for sale and company valuations.

Pictured, on opposite page, from left to right, are Ben Quigley, Raman Sehgal, event chair John Duns, Duncan Reid, Michael Cantwell and Trevor Clark

Providing a pathway to career success

A robust talent pipeline is fundamental to business growth. And helping firms achieve such is apprenticeship provider Northern Skills. Here, ahead of September’s new academic year, Steven Hugill speaks to Nicole James, the organisation’s apprenticeship recruitment manager, business administrator William Paterson and recruitment consultants Thomas Peacock and Kaitlyn Potton, to find out more about the power of vocational learning for employers and youngsters, and how the latter trio are using their experiences to inform students’ journeys.

www.northernskills.co.uk @northernskills_

To stroll along Bridge Street East’s wide avenue is to take a journey through the broad expanse of Middlesbrough’s industrial heritage.

At one end, where rattling rail lines cross the Victorian-era Albert Bridge, poet Ian Horn lionises the ‘alchemy’ of iron ore pioneers Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan, his wall art an unashamed love letter to the town’s manufacturing muscle that ‘built the world’.

At the other end, Middlesbrough College Group’s campus catapults the narrative into the present day.

Where Bolckow and Vaughan began, the education provider is maintaining the industrial thrust, cohorts of talent streaming through the employment gateways of its former docklands home to lead next generation change.

Central to the flow is Northern Skills, the group’s dedicated apprenticeship and training arm, whose specialist recruitment team channels learners’ ambitions to the skills needs of more than 2000 firms.

Working with employers from Berwick to York, it catalyses students’ journeys through myriad courses and qualification planes across sectors from accountancy, construction and dentistry to further industries such as IT and digital, engineering and manufacturing. And it works.

Pictured, above, from left to right, are Northern Skills' apprenticeship business administrator William Paterson, apprenticeship recruitment manager Nicole James and recruitment consultants Thomas Peacock and Kaitlyn Potton

Latest figures show a shade more than 97 per cent of nearly 450 apprentices moved on to further studies, higher education or employment following the conclusion of their respective programmes in 2022.

“We provide end-to-end support, helping businesses find apprentices and students find the right employer for their futures,” says Nicole James, Northern Skills’ apprenticeship recruitment manager.

“For any business, taking on an apprentice – whether it be one or a cohort of 50 – is a great way to shape their workforce, and we tailor our support to their differing needs to ensure they are able to do so.

“Some still see the process as a little daunting, but we remove any uncertainties by matching their needs

with the right learners, using our close relationships with tutors to identify which candidates best fit an employer’s brief.

“We also facilitate eligibility checks, to ensure learners meet course entry requirements, send over CVs for shortlisting and help arrange interviews.”

“And this is mirrored in our student support,” says Nicole, who splits her time between Northern Skills’ Middlesbrough base and a sister hub in Newcastle’s Stamp Exchange.

She adds: “We carry out initial guidance sessions with every candidate, making sure they understand how an apprenticeship works and that they are aware of the differences between the various levels of learning.

“We also explore the many differing elements of a sector to find the area that best suits their ambitions.

“And then, once an apprenticeship offer is made, we ensure candidates have everything they need to start a vacancy.

“Similarly, if a candidate isn’t quite ready for an apprenticeship, we deliver upskilling, through things like interview and CV workshops, to prepare them for future opportunities.”

Such close support is intrinsic to the recruitment team’s offer, with staff, including apprenticeship business administrator William Paterson and recruitment consultants Thomas Peacock and Kaitlyn Potton – who all previously completed level three business administration apprenticeships with Northern Skills – softening physical frameworks with layers of emotion and experience.

Both Thomas and Kaitlyn are previous recipients of Northern Skills rising star awards, and having walked the same path as present-day students, are more than able to guide their journeys.

“I was once that 16 or 17-year-old trying to work out what they wanted to do, so it’s nice to be able to use my story to help students,” says Thomas, who undertook two apprenticeships with Northern Skills before being offered a full-time role.

He says: “An apprenticeship can feel a little daunting at first, especially for those leaving school, but the team and I use our experiences to show that while it might seem difficult, it is ultimately very rewarding.

“For me to be able to say, ‘I’ve been through it, and

this is how you can progress’, is really valuable and it makes a big difference when talking to students.”

Nicole adds: “Starting learners on their career paths is by far the favourite part of our job, because you can see the impact it has.

“We placed a candidate six years ago, for example, who is now a manager hiring their own people.

“Similarly, when Thomas was promoted to his fulltime role, he recruited for his business administration apprentice replacement, and Kaitlyn is now doing the same.

“Things go full circle, and its lovely to see.

“And that is why I’d encourage any business or learner thinking about an apprenticeship for the next academic year to contact the team.

“It isn’t too late, and the difference an apprenticeship can make to the future of a firm and a student is huge.”

Pictured, above, Nicole James, Northern Skills’ apprenticeship recruitment manager Below, recruitment consultant Kaitlyn Potton

BACK ON TRACK:

REVIVING THE LEAMSIDE LINE

From pioneering patriarchs Stephenson and Hudson to the radical regression of Beeching, the Leamside Line is bookended by no little revolution.

Throughout its near 200-year history, the 21-mile route’s capricious narrative – from passenger travel boom and freight surge to 1960s branch line stripping – has offered a telling précis into the wider, fluctuating British rail story.

And it may yet do so again, with a campaign to revive the mothballed route – led by organisations including Transport North East, cross-party politicians and business and local authority bosses – gathering increasing momentum.

Supporters say a renaissance of the line, which cuts through green boltholes and old mining settlements between Pelaw, in Gateshead, and Ferryhill, in County Durham, will deliver critical new passenger and trade connections, as well as multifarious economic, employment and environmental benefits.

Those points, and more, were highlighted at an event, held in partnership with North East Times Magazine, at transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson’s Newcastle offices, with Tobyn Hughes, Transport North East managing director; Sarah Mulholland, Northern Powerhouse Partnership deputy chief executive; and Rachel Anderson, North East England Chamber of Commerce assistant director of policy, providing key insight.

Words by Steven Hugill

Photography by Jason Thompson

THE LEAMSIDE LINE WAS MOTHBALLED IN THE EARLY 1990s AFTER FREIGHT SERVICES LEFT ITS TRACKS. WHY IS THERE NOW A CAMPAIGN TO REVIVE THE CONNECTION?

Strictly speaking, the restoration bid is more than six decades old.

Ever since passenger services were shunted into sidings following Dr Richard Beeching’s Reshaping of British Railways report, campaigners have clamoured for the 21-mile line’s reinstatement.

Indeed, archive papers show North East England Chamber of Commerce members documented their determination to resume travel operations on the line –which acted as the original route from York to the North East – in the immediate aftermath of their 1960s cull.

And while years have passed and faces have changed, emotions have remained resolute.

And so too has the physical element, said Tobyn Hughes, managing director at Transport North East – which is working alongside business organisations, cross-party MPs and local authority chiefs to lobby Government – with the line’s sweeping course still intact, but for encroaching greenery.

He said: “The track bed remains from Pelaw to Ferryhill, and because the route is mothballed rather than closed, it could be reactivated.”

WHY DOES THE REGION NEED THE LEAMSIDE LINE WHEN IT ALREADY HAS THE FLAGSHIP EAST COAST MAIN LINE?

Highlighting the ever-ascending volume of freight and passenger services on the Edinburgh-to-London route, Tobyn said the Leamside Line would alleviate such capacity woes.

He said: “The East Coast Main Line is constrained and its unreliability impacts on any journey, whether it be to London, Edinburgh, Manchester or Birmingham.

“The Leamside Line could carry goods and passengers, and would act as an alternative.”

Sarah Mulholland, deputy chief executive at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership business-led think tank, agreed.

She said the route is crucial to leveraging the full benefits of the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme, which aims to significantly bolster east to west connections across the upper half of the country.

She said: “Decades of underinvestment in our largely Victorian-era network have left our railways on the brink.

“The Leamside Line is a critical piece of infrastructure; without it, Northern Powerhouse Rail –and its potential to deliver transformational economic scenarios – isn’t possible.”

“Sometimes it can be hard to be optimistic, but we can’t let frustration at the Government’s lack of infrastructure vision, the watering down of the Integrated Rail Plan and the daily frustrations of the North’s rail network make us think it can never be better” –Sarah

Tobyn Hughes, Transport North East managing director, addresses guests during the Leamside Line event

Kevin Bell, Womble Bond Dickinson partner and Leamside Line event host, speaks to audience members

Mulholland, Northern Powerhouse Partnership deputy chief executive

EVENT: BACK ON TRACK

HOW WOULD PASSENGERS BENEFIT FROM THE ROUTE’S REINTRODUCTION?

Tobyn pointed to the “enormous potential” of a central pillar in the campaign – the Washington Metro Loop –which he said would rewrite journeys, not least for the 70,000 people of the Wearside community whose name it carries.

Presently the UK’s fourth largest town without access to a rail service, Tobyn said the blueprint – which promises new connections at Washington and Follingsby, via existing lines on the Nexus-run Tyne and Wear light railway system between Pelaw and South Hylton – would plug a major void.

He added: “It’s quite hard to get between Newcastle and Sunderland using public transport.

“But the Metro Loop would provide improved access for between 13,000 and 38,000 workers, and between 38,000 and 105,000 residents, not least Washington’s 70,000.”

He also hailed the prospect of a new Ferryhill station, which he said would give passengers welcome change from bus services following years of having to watch “trains zip past”.

WHAT WOULD THE LEAMSIDE LINE’S REVIVAL MEAN FOR THE ECONOMY?

Continuing on the Washington Metro Loop – for which a strategic outline business case has been handed to the Department for Transport – Tobyn added: “The Leamside Line is the most important piece of infrastructure for the economic future of the North East.

“It would create nearly eight million additional passenger journeys a year on the Metro and generate more than £90 million a year in gross value added.”

Sarah concurred, framing the Loop’s projected £745 million cost against lavish Government schemes such as London’s Crossrail.

She also emphasised its economic value when set against the Government’s latest developmental blueprint – the £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan – which ignores the Leamside Line, despite promising to “deliver the greatest transport benefits for more people, more quickly”.

She said: “The Leamside Line offers a lot.

“The Loop itself would cost just one per cent of the Integrated Rail Plan budget, and would pay for itself in less than two Parliamentary terms.”

WHAT ABOUT THE LEAMSIDE LINE’S COMMERCIAL IMPACT?

From the thousands employed at Nissan’s Sunderland car plant to the nearby International Advanced Manufacturing

Park (IAMP), the sprawling Amazon warehouses of Follingsby Park and Bowburn, and the planned arena, conference and exhibition centre on Gateshead’s quayside, the Leamside Line carves through commercially fertile ground.

Which is why, said speakers, its reintroduction carries great significance, particularly from a freight perspective.

Sarah Mulholland, Northern Powerhouse Partnership deputy chief executive, adds to the Leamside Line debate

Having borne the weight of countless heavy loads prior to its mothballing, principally truck fulls of ‘black gold’ from the region’s coalfields, the Leamside Line, said Tobyn, is readily placed to create valuable trade links.

He said: “Rail freight services are surging, and a really key part of the restored Leamside Line would be its use as a freight artery.

“It would enhance connections with significant employers.”

Sarah sited the Leamside Line as a vital cog in a wider developmental wheel encompassing projects such as the Teesworks green energy scheme, in Redcar.

She said: “A thriving economy needs reliable transport networks that allow freight and people to move quickly and easily.

“We need to better connect the people who have been left behind, and who are bursting to get out and succeed” –Rachel Anderson, North East England Chamber of Commerce assistant director of policy

“The Leamside Line will generate thousands of wellpaid, highly-skilled jobs, unlock productivity gains, attract further inward investment and make Government infrastructure projects more valuable because connectivity between them has been boosted.”

Rachel Anderson, assistant director of policy at the North East England Chamber of Commerce, focused on the region’s seaborne trade hubs.

She added: “Our regional ports are about to take a huge leap forward, from the Teesside freeport to ambitions around creating a green ‘super port’ on the River Tyne.

“And they are crucial for Scottish freight too.

“Things, though, are constrained because of the pinch points we have on the system.

“The Leamside Line would change that dynamic.”

EVENT: BACK ON TRACK

HOW WOULD THE LEAMSIDE LINE IMPROVE THE REGION’S ACCESS TO SKILLS?

For too long, warned panellists, the clogging of road arteries, aligned to declining public transport performance, has meant considerable growth restraint, not least on individuals’ career aspirations.

Channelling the sentiment of Chamber business discussions and its work on Government Local Skills Improvement Plans across the North of Tyne and Tees Valley areas, Rachel said the Leamside Line would deliver “immeasurable” employment sector benefits.

She said: “Our transport system puts constraints on getting the right skilled people in the right places at the right time.

“We were told by someone who works for a recruitment consultancy that it can’t get candidates to sites like Nissan and IAMP because of transport limitations.

“And, what’s more, she told us her son, an electrical engineering college student, is in the same situation.

“The family lives in Jarrow, so getting to IAMP would require a one-and-a-half hour journey across three bus connections and, because of that, her son is having to look elsewhere.

“We need to better connect those who have been left behind, and who are bursting to get out and succeed.”

Sarah concurred, recalling teenage experiences of parental lifts from Washington to meet Newcastlebound Metro services at Heworth.

She added: “We know a young person in Northumberland can’t get a job in Newcastle, because it will take them two-and-a-half hours to travel between work.

“The Leamside Line would make a vital difference, improving work travel and allowing companies to tap into wider talent pools.”

HOW WOULD THE LEAMSIDE LINE DELIVER ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS?

Highlighting projections the Washington Metro Loop would replace nearly 1.7 million journeys each year, Tobyn said: “It is reasonably easy to get around the North East by car.

“But all that does is bring vehicles into town and city centres.”

Rachel added: “Getting our firms making more, and getting our ports moving more, is very important.

“But so too is moving those goods without putting more HGVs on our roads.

“And the Leamside Line is a more sustainable way

of doing so.

“For example, steel for Nissan presently comes into the Port of Middlesbrough and then goes on lorries up the A19 or A66.

“But the Leamside Line could deliver such loads in a much more environmentally-friendlier way.”

FUNDING FOR THE LEAMSIDE LINE’S REVIVAL WOULD REST, IN NO SMALL PART, UPON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT. AND WITH THE PROJECT LIKELY TO BE ASSESSED AGAINST SIMILAR UK-WIDE SCHEMES, HOW MUST THE AREA MARKET THE LINE’S ADVANTAGES TO MINISTERS TO HELP BRING IT TO FRUITION?

Rachel said the campaign must come without parochiality and, at the same time, no little cohesivity of messaging.

She said: “We need to work together to demonstrate the value of this scheme nationally, not just locally.

“Speaking with a single voice will help, and we must also encourage mayors in the North of Tyne, Tees Valley and North Yorkshire to hunt in a pack and provide an inter-geographical view on the Leamside Line.”

Sarah added the region must paint a vivid picture for the country’s elected members if the campaign is to truly resonate in Westminster’s corridors of power.

She added: “Many MPs are London-centric, and aren’t aware of the realities of travel in this region.

“We’ve got to make it real for them.”

"A firm commitment to the re-opening of the Leamside Line is one of the biggest actions the Government can take in ‘levelling-up’ the North East. It will ensure our region remains an attractive place to live, work and invest. Our region fully deserves support and investment. It should never be seen as an unnecessary cost to the public purse" –Kevin Bell, Womble Bond Dickinson partner and event host Rachel Anderson, assistant director of policy at the North East England

Pictured, from left to right, Tobyn Hughes, Rachel Anderson, Sarah Mulholland and Kevin Bell

Chamber of Commerce, talks to audience members

EVENT: BACK ON TRACK

Ad Gefrin

For more details on Corenkyn and Corengyst memberships, and to book tickets and tours, buy spirits or find out more information, visit www.adgefrin. co.uk

The spirit of belonging in Northumberland

The atrium entrance to Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Distillery certainly takes your breath away, with its 9300 pine tiles sweeping up to a patinated copper lantern. But it is the timeless hospitality offered by all that is even more impressive for anyone who visits this new Northumberland destination.

www.adgefrin.co.uk @AdGefrin

From the very beginning, Ad Gefrin has set out to be synonymous with the essence of being Northumbrian –and the ancient warmth of welcome is at the core.

New Corenkyn member Tim Pitt messaged recently, saying: “I love that this amazing distillery and museum I stumbled across (having cycled past a field a few miles away with some carved wooden gateposts and wondered at the name Ad Gefrin) is becoming such a second home to me. You and the whole team have a special thing going on here!”

Corenkyn comes from the Old English words for chosen and family, and it is the name given to Ad Gefrin’s founder membership scheme.

As with so much about Ad Gefrin, the name echoes the golden connection to a time past, but also clearly sets out its values for today.

Community and family top the list of objectives that the Fergusons, the family behind Ad Gefrin, set out when establishing what is ostensibly a regeneration project for Wooler and north Northumberland.

Nearly 50 per cent of those employed come from Wooler and its immediate surroundings, and more than 95 per cent come from Northumberland itself.

A sense of family pervades throughout, with staff given the title of Huskynn, meaning house family in Old English.

Their enthusiasm and passion for Ad Gefrin is tangible, and it’s not hard to see why the welcome is so remarkable.

The inspiration behind it all comes from the seventh century summer palace of the Northumbrian kings and queens uncovered in the 1950s at Yeavering – just four miles away on the edge of Northumberland National Park.

For three months every summer, this was a place

where people travelled from North Africa, Scandinavia and Europe to attend court, becoming a powerful hub of mixed cultures, religions, language and creativity.

This was a time when kings were judged by their generosity not their wealth, and where leaving your weapons at the door secured your welcome.

This is the welcome on offer in the Ad Gefrin of today – a place where tales are woven, friendships kindled and lasting connections forged.

Whether history-buff, whisky-lover or just looking to spend quality time with family and friends, Ad Gefrin is encapsulating a spirit of togetherness with a true flavour of all things Northumbrian – not just the whisky.

As well as the Corenkyn membership scheme, which offers eight years’ exclusive whisky releases and lifetime free access to the museum and distillery, Ad Gefrin offers a Corengyst annual pass – meaning chosen guest in Old English.

Both Corenkyn and Corengyst enjoy free tours and discounts across the bistro, gift shop and online.

Recently launched weekend brunch, Sunday lunch and soon-to-come afternoon tea offers have certainly added to the draw for membership regulars.

The suntrap of a patio is particularly popular for late afternoon cocktails, making the most of Ad Gefrin’s inaugural whisky blend – Tácnbora – and the hot-off-thebottling-line Thirlings Dry Gin.

Timeless hospitality, a warm welcome, a golden heritage, story-telling, a stunning building and a sense of family all add up to a very special place to visit – and become part of.

Perhaps a new destination for people from all over the world to exchange cultures, language, ideas and creativity that mirrors the past?

And certainly, if you are prepared to leave your weapons at the door, all are welcome in Wooler.

The Great Hall entrance at Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Distillery

Pictures: Sally-Ann Norman

Pictured, above, Ad Gefrin AngloSaxon Museum and Distillery's stunning atrium entrance. Left, Huskynn Duncan McColl, ready to welcome visitors

Five minutes with…

support to firms across the

the

and why, despite

personal touch.

4The business has been providing clients with HR support for more than a decade. Can you explain a little about the company and its development?

HR2day provides effective, bespoke HR solutions for small-to-medium-sized businesses employing between five and 150 people, operating in the North East and throughout the wider UK.

We help business owners and managers stay compliant with HR law, inspire their teams, get HR problems solved and have the paperwork done for them.

We have evolved since we started in 2010, building a strong core team of experts.

We maintain client relationships by working with management teams and understanding their day-to-day issues, and have an excellent understanding of their long-term strategy.

Our main service is a retained HR support, wherein we help clients with all HR needs, from providing options of advice, drafting documents to the point of print and supporting companies and managers to end results, for the full life cycle of employees.

What benefits do firms gain from ensuring robust HR practices are in place?

Strong HR frameworks are essential to a well-run business.

They help protect a company and its employees, and provide boundaries to all but, more importantly, provide consistency to all employees.

Having these policies and procedures can reduce victimisation and inconsistency,

Nicky Jolley

Nicky Jolley is managing director of HR2day, the Darlington-based provider of human resources

North East and beyond. Here, she tells Steven Hugill about

company’s growth, why HR is far more than a perceived box-ticking exercise,

its continued expansion, the business will never lose its

allowing the company to be transparent.

Such practices also reassure employees the company is committed to getting things right and will treat them fairly and appropriately.

Having clear and documented procedures will also support the company should they end up in a tribunal, where evidence will be crucial.

However, it is not enough for organisations to just have these policies in place – it is important they follow them too.

We have seen businesses that, from the outside, appear to have solid HR foundations.

But, when looking behind the curtain, the rules have started to slip, and this can have a negative impact and increase risk for employers should they find themselves in a legal dispute.

The post-pandemic landscape continues to bring much greater demand for employee empowerment. How important, therefore, is it that firms’ HR strategies are attuned to this trend?

Considering employee empowerment and having flexible and transparent policies could help with attracting new employees.

They provide boundaries and clarity of options available to everyone while also supporting managers to make fair and consistent decisions.

For example, many people found working from home was beneficial to their employment/life balance and, if they were parents, to their childcare needs.

Post-pandemic, many organisations have introduced a hybrid work policy, meaning child-free employees are not excluded from flexible working arrangements that were previously only really accessible to parents.

HR doesn’t always get a warm welcome in some quarters, mainly due to outdated preconceptions of its functions. How do you tackle stereotypes around HR and promote its importance to a business?

HR is seen as an expensive cost until things go wrong.

It then becomes an essential resource, which is relied upon to resolve miscommunication, poor management

and lack of feedback.

We’re essentially like the Highway Code and car insurance rolled into one – we set out clear rules and guidance and we help put things right when they go wrong.

Most issues in the workplace could be resolved with mutual communication and understanding, but emotions get in the way, and it becomes personal.

HR removes the personal aspect and enables problems to be dealt with in an unemotional and fair way.

Preventing issues from escalating can save a company a fortune, while also mitigating problems before they reach the tribunal stage.

When HR is worked with as a partner, rather than treated as an unnecessary drain on financial resources, it can create a productive and effective environment for everyone.

HR initiatives should be integrated and involved in companies’ long-term strategies to support their futures and prepare workforces with development and preparation.

What does the future hold for HR2day?

More organisations are outsourcing HR as a costeffective option, rather than employing an in-house person or team.

This is because it offers a broader range of skills, due to a whole team working on clients’ accounts, rather than one person.

We do have clients we work very closely with, and are on site with regularly, but the majority work with us to ensure they are compliant and have someone to help should problems arise.

We have plans to grow the business, but never to a size that loses its personal touch, because we always want to work closely with – and know – our clients.

We will never become so big it feels like a call centre.

We want our clients to feel like we are part of their team, not that they’re just a number.

We’re there to advise, guide and support them every step of the way.

-

Back in the game: Retaining parents in the workforce

People take career breaks for various reasons, from raising a family to caring for relatives. One of the most common is women going on maternity leave. Here, Ailsa Charlton, a solicitor in the dispute resolution team at leading independent law firm for business Muckle LLP, and Susan Howe, equity partner and head of the dispute resolution team, tell juxtaposing stories of women at different stages of their legal careers, which highlight the challenges faced by working mothers.

www.muckle-llp.com/careers/ @MuckleLLP

Muckle LLP

To learn more about what it’s like to work for Muckle, and to browse current vacancies, visit www.muckle-llp. com/careers/

It is widely accepted women shoulder a lot of responsibility in raising families, which negatively impacts their careers.

That Works For Me’s ‘Work After Babies’ report found that although 98 per cent of mothers want to work, 85 per cent leave the full-time workforce within three years of having children, while 19 per cent stop working altogether.

Pictured

Various post-pandemic reports (Fawcett’s ‘Equal Pay Day 2020’ and PwC’s ‘Women in Work 2023’) also conclude women are quitting work after becoming mothers.

Research suggests childcare is a primary reason for this – a 2022 Pregnant Then Screwed report found 43 per cent of mothers are considering leaving their jobs due to the cost of childcare.

Other issues include limited career opportunities and workplace flexibility.

How can employers support?

By creating happy and healthy staff, employers see a positive impact on productivity and retention.

A flexible culture also enables greater access to a diverse talent pool, creating a more inclusive workforce.

To achieve this, there must first be a cost benefit to women returning to work, through transparent parental leave policies and support for both mothers and fathers (including shared parental leave).

Support could also include employee groups, such as Muckle’s parents network and parental mentor scheme.

Most recently, Muckle partnered with Women Returners on ‘Return… the Muckle Way’, a structured

training programme to help anyone (not just women) looking to return to work after a break of 12 months. Another way is through flexible working; employees working in a way that suits their and their employer’s needs, such as part-time or flexible working hours. Employers must also ensure equal opportunities for both existing and prospective employees.

For example, 50 per cent of Muckle’s partners and directors are female, and women head up 56 per cent of its legal departments.

Ailsa’s story: re-entering the workforce

Ailsa Charlton, a solicitor in Muckle’s dispute resolution team, has first-hand experience of the challenges returning to work can bring, after becoming a first-time parent in 2021 and returning after her maternity leave in 2022.

She says: “The transition between motherhood and returning to work can be a rollercoaster journey.

“Although I love my job, my priorities since becoming a mother have obviously shifted, and there’s a lot of juggling between my work and personal life.

“Another challenge has been re-discovering my confidence after returning to work after such a substantial break.”

Ailsa credits the working culture at Muckle for helping her adjust to her new life as a working parent.

She says: “Muckle values everyone’s parental responsibilities and has supported me from day one, from getting in touch immediately when having my baby to utilising keeping in touch days to help ease me back into work.

right, Ailsa Charlton, solicitor in Muckle LLP's dispute resolution team, left, with Susan Howe, equity partner and head of dispute resolution team

“Muckle has recently introduced two initiatives to help parental returners to work, a support group and a mentor scheme, both of which I am proud to be part of.

“It is so important for new parents to have a support network where everyone can share their feelings and experiences.

“Whatever your issue, there is always someone to talk to who understands how you’re feeling.

“You are never alone.”

Susan’s story: balancing motherhood and a career

It is sometimes helpful to remind ourselves about how far we’ve come.

For Susan Howe, equity partner and head of Muckle’s dispute resolution team, having the flexibility to balance motherhood and a career is a very different concept from the one she experienced.

She says: “What was the norm on many issues back in the 1980s/1990s would be unheard of today.

“Even talking about parental responsibilities in the

People take a career break for different reasons, yet the challenges returners face are similar across the board. And this is where an inclusive organisational culture comes into play

workplace was entirely unacceptable and there was very little flexibility for women who had children.

“Most women simply accepted that if they chose to become mothers, they could forget about any career progression for years, possibly forever.

“Sadly, I have seen so many excellent women fall by the wayside because of the difficulties in balancing the requirements of motherhood and a career – what a waste of talent.”

On a more positive note, Susan is pleased the working landscape is changing for the better.

She adds: “The change is extraordinary, and it’s all for good.

“Life is very different now for working mothers, which is exactly as it should be.

“I am very proud of the equality and diversity culture we work hard to have here at Muckle.

“It’s a real joy to see so many focused, articulate, intelligent women around me contributing to this business at every level.”

Networking at Haylofts

North East Times Magazine hosted a networking event at Haylofts, in Newcastle, with Giselle Stewart as guest speaker. In a fireside chat with editor Steven Hugill, Giselle spoke of her excitement at leading video games developer Creative Assembly North’s Newcastle expansion, and how the business is playing its part in the skills agenda to roll out future generations of digital talent.

BUILDING A MORE SUSTAINABLE HEALTHCARE SECTOR

From scientific findings to attention-grabbing demonstrations, the spectrum of climate emergency awareness continues to widen.

And its influence is felt no more keenly than across the business world where, beyond the papers and protests, increasing layers of environmental, social and governance policy is being conceived and conveyed to create a healthier future for the planet and its people.

A roundtable discussion, hosted by North East Times Magazine alongside award-winning architectural practice Corstorphine & Wright, analysed this evolving landscape, with sector leaders and key academic thinkers investigating wellbeing through the prism of sustainability.

Using the healthcare sector, in particular care homes and assisted living developments, as a case study, panellists assessed future direction from the intersection of design and wellness.

Words by Steven Hugill

Examining the impact of physical and technological change alongside social and cultural revision, speakers discussed a raft of measures focused on creating a more sustainable care environment that, crucially, retains patients’ and residents’ needs at its core.

Why a refreshed architectural approach to care provision is key to planetary and personal wellbeing

Photography by Angela Carrington

THE PANEL INCLUDED:

WHAT DOES THE PRESENT CARE LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE?

To pull on centuries’ old philosophical threads, to understand the future requires first a detailed appreciation of the past.

And in a world where swells of economic and environmental change continue to clash with ever-rising waves of social and cultural transformation, such command has arguably never been more important.

And the UK’s care sector, cautioned roundtable members, must heed some historical lessons.

For too long, said delegates, the very meaning of the healthcare industry, certainly across care homes and assisted living, has operated contrarily, with homogeneity and no little stigma exacerbating identity loss and a reduction of confidence among patients and residents.

Sara Thakkar, chief executive at Camphill Village Trust, which provides support for adults with learning disabilities from urban and rural community hubs across the UK, called for a “revolution”.

She said: “Back in the 1950s and 1960s, a lot of older people provision was built around transforming old workhouses.

“And with the way care is displayed, often loudly in traditional and social media, it creates a horrific picture.

“Too often, we see people are degenerated to a state that they cannot cope in life, with a narrative that they have no choice and are treated poorly.

“It’s not the reality, but it is the story that is portrayed.

“And we must revolutionise that; we must continuously challenge to remove the stigma and re-energise and reposition what the care sector is all about.

“People will make decisions at different times based on inferences being created – and many will therefore leave it too late, which is where it becomes a challenge for the health sector.”

Iain Garfield

Director of estates and facilities, Newcastle University

Toby IngleAssociate director, Corstorphine & Wright

Sara Thakkar

Chief executive, Camphill Village Trust

Ian Cornwell

Director, Kraken IM

Karen Crowe

Director and head of ESG (environmental, social and governance), Corstorphine & Wright

Dr Carolyn GibbesonAssistant professor, department of architecture and built environment, Northumbria University

Tony TenchDeputy chief executive, Housing 21

John Duns (chair)Director, North East Times Magazine

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

Karen Crowe, director and head of ESG (environmental, social and governance) at architectural practice Corstorphine & Wright, concurred, saying the industry must move away from a deep-rooted demarcation.

She said: “Essentially, we’ve created a silo.

“It’s almost a feeling of, ‘when you get to this stage of your life, you need ‘x’ level of care, but you can only have it in one setting with other people, who are all like you’.

“We need to shake things up – and the best way to do that is by taking a holistic approach.”

SO, HOW DO WE

ACTION TANGIBLE CHANGE ACROSS THE SECTOR, TO NOT ONLY IMPROVE PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTHCARE BUT PHYSICAL SERVICES TOO? AND HOW CRUCIAL IS BUILDING DESIGN IN DELIVERING SUCH TRANSFORMATION?

We are all guided by routines, the comfort and familiarity of our social and cultural tics – whether obvious or subliminal – inherent to our very existence.

So why then, argued roundtable members, should we be at risk of a counterintuitive loss of such reassurance, and the freedom it helps conjure, when we switch to a care home or assisted living development?

To help alleviate such, delegates pinpointed the importance of building design, advocating the creation of spaces capable of delivering health support while retaining the ability to remain connected with the world around.

Toby Ingle, associate director at Corstorphine & Wright, said: “On a basic level, whatever your age, you want to be engaged.

“You want to be able to look out of the window to see, for example, a forest of trees blowing in the wind or the bus coming past, or, in a lot of cases, the postman arriving, not least because they hold interest but also mark certain points in a day.”

Sara highlighted the need for understanding of a “far greater interconnected picture”, which melds people’s needs and desires with changes to building design that complement the planet’s sustainability goals.

“We need to think differently when we’re designing homes, to ensure they are both accessible and

providing value towards a healthy life,” said Sara, whose Camphill Village Trust portfolio includes the Larchfield Community support base, in Hemlington, near Middlesbrough.

She added: “Does an environment allow us to take exercise or grow vegetables, for example?

“And, alternatively, if we’re in an urban setting and we don’t have that landscape, how do we use design to bring nature inside?

“If we have brick or plant walls, how do we ensure they can be moved, based on the fact someone who wasn’t in a wheelchair when they arrived is now using one?

“We’re looking at something that is person-centric, which the building wraps around, to provide equity and equality.”

HOW IMPORTANT ARE PATIENTS’ AND RESIDENTS’ NEEDS AND WANTS IN DELIVERING CHANGE ACROSS THE CARE SECTOR?

Karen and Toby drew on the significance of location in developments’ ability to satisfy differing requirements.

Toby said: “Before we even get to design, there is a conversation to be had on where a building should be based.

“We’re all very good at picking a site in a greenbelt area, which is beautiful for residents, but one of the biggest challenges that comes with doing that is sourcing staff – where are they going to come from?

“On the other side, there is a real trend for healthcare on the high street – we’re taking diagnostic imaging out of hospitals and putting them in shopping centres, for example – and that makes the urban location very interesting in this discussion.”

"There is a systemic disconnect between buildings, people and the planet, as well as care and provision. We need reintegration; if we continue to fight around the edges, it’s not going to work" –Sara Thakkar

Karen Crowe, director and head of ESG at Corstorphine & Wright, addresses fellow roundtable members

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

CORSTORPHINE & WRIGHT

Corstorphine & Wright is an award-winning architectural practice with 11 UK studios, which include bases in Darlington and Newcastle, and 270-plus people. Ranked at number 22 in the AJ100, Corstorphine & Wright designs spaces with elusive must-have quality, translating requirements, constraints and opportunities into places that are more than the sum of their parts, and which invigorate communities and maximise long-term civic and commercial value.

Karen said the design phase must ensure any location searches are couched with understanding of social and infrastructure chains to dispel certain perceived requirements.

She said: “Intergenerational communities are where we need to be with regards to people at older stages of their lives, because it helps combat loneliness.

“The perception can sometimes be that older people want some peace and quiet, and that being next to a school or nursery, for instance, would be a disruption.

“But, actually, just looking out and seeing children running around can be a positive thing, and could potentially provide opportunities for the establishment of a partnership between a care setting and a school or nursery, which would bring communities together.

“Needs analysis must come before you put pen to paper; until you really understand the community or individual you are designing for, you’re on a rocky road to making a fundamental mistake.”

Tony Tench, deputy chief executive at Housing 21 – which recently unveiled plans for an assisted living development in Guisborough, east Cleveland – added his support to Karen’s argument, drawing on previous experiences in the Midlands.

He said: “I think we make big assumptions about what people want; we need to do more to understand who we are trying to provide for.

“We’re working with a very deprived community group in inner-city Birmingham on a co-housing scheme.

“We took them to a new extra care scheme, complete with green spaces, and they were very complimentary.

“But when we asked how they felt about living there, they said no.

“It proved everyone is different, that community and connections are so important, and that people don’t mind looking at a brick wall, or even an A-road, if it means retaining those links.”

Iain Garfield, director of estates and facilities at

do you change design thinking, so it has empathy with the people operating it? It comes down to understanding what you are designing from several different aspects, not just how it looks or performs”

Newcastle University, was equally effusive on the importance of fostering connected living spaces, using the institution’s £500 million Campus for Ageing and Vitality (CAV) as a case study.

Approved last year, the sprawling development will feature residential and commercial properties, assisted living housing, high care home accommodation and retirement space on Newcastle’s former General Hospital site.

Praising its potential, he added its fundamental principles chime with those of the Netherlands-based Hogeweyk ‘dementia village’, which bosses say promotes greater intergenerational living thanks to a reshaping of the traditional nursing home concept.

He said: “You have to get the balance right.

“A development in a city or town centre sounds great, but it’s about the whole scape; there must be understanding of the amenities available beyond the building.”

“And CAV is a great example,” said Iain of the scheme, which is supported by Newcastle City Council; Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust; Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

Toby Ingle, associate director at Corstorphine & Wright, and Dr Carolyn Gibbeson, assistant professor in the department of architecture and built environment at Northumbria University

He added: “Far from being an ‘old people’s ghetto’, it is a 29-acre site that gives fantastic opportunity to provide everything in one place, while still being integrated within the community.

“We’ve not only got the chance to create traditional housing for ‘normal living’, but we have scope too for carers – and their families – to live on site.

“At the moment, there are walls around the development, but there is fantastic opportunity to spread out, move into the local community – including potential links with a school next door – and create an

"How

–

Ian Cornwell

intergenerational site.

“It is all designed around putting people first.”

THE WORLD IS A RAPIDLY CHANGING PLACE, WITH MORE FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY THAN EVER BEFORE. HOW DOES THE GREEN AGENDA FEED INTO THE DRIVE TO CREATE MORE CONNECTED, INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES?

Panellists were united over the inextricable link between improvements to care sector provision and the global sustainability drive.

But effecting such practice, they agreed, comes with no little difficulty.

Physical change is one thing, but arresting decades of assumed norms and how people think about, and interact with, a building and its systems, is quite the other.

And, said Karen, it isn’t a situation that will be solved swiftly, despite continued technological advances.

Karen said: “The sustainability agenda demands huge cultural change.

“It is getting to be less demanding with younger generations but, for the vast majority, certainly from some social class backgrounds, it is presently a step too far.

“Arguments still remain in some quarters around the notion that ‘I’ve worked all of my life to put the heating on and keep myself warm, and that is what I will continue to do'".

Toby had the same opinion, placing the onus on the design sector to spearhead environmental measures capable of hitting headline carbon figures while enveloping a wider spectrum of society.

He said: “The want and ask of people is growing; market forces across my generation and the one following it are demanding more sustainable elements to be intertwined with services.

“But, at the same time, we’ve got a deadline to meet net-zero targets, and we can’t just sit and wait for those generations to come through and demand those assets.

“We have to answer the question around what physical measures we can start applying to buildings now, whether they are existing or new build, to continue the sustainability agenda.

“We need to be ahead of the game.”

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME REQUIRED TO SHIFT MINDSETS?

Roundtable members were universal in their belief that watershed change to properties by way of more sustainable technology, such as air source heat pumps, is the correct direction of travel.

But they also concurred that if inhabitants receive no teaching on such apparatus, and the legacies of past thinking continue to permeate, then the green drive will stall before it hits anywhere near top gear.

Tony said: “We’ve tried to move away from fossil fuels, but it is proving challenging.

“Every time we do an assessment of residents’ options, we take in mind their comfort, affordability and control, and gas so often comes out on top in their preferences.”

He added: “There is a big education piece around heat.

“Needs analysis must come before you put pen to paper; until you really understand the community or individual you are designing for, you’re on a rocky road to making a fundamental mistake” –

Karen Crowe

“For the majority of their lives, many people have understood if the heating is on by touching the radiator.

“And not having the ability to do that is quite a concern for some.”

Dr Carolyn Gibbeson, assistant professor in the department of architecture and built environment at Northumbria University, agreed there was an educational void to fill, using the Passive House scheme – in which homes are fitted with extremely high levels of insulation, high performance windows, airtight fabric and ventilation systems complete with heat recovery mechanisms to boost energy efficiency – as reference.

She said: “With Passive Houses, the biggest problem is not the property but the person in it, who tries to use it as they would a ‘normal’ home.

Tony Tench, deputy

chief executive at Housing 21, makes a point during the roundtable event

IF ATTITUDES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, CERTAINLY IN OLDER GENERATIONS, REMAIN LETHARGIC, ARE WE AT RISK OF MISSING SUSTAINABILITY GOALS? IS THERE A WIDER

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

“We have to answer the question around what physical measures we can start applying to buildings now, whether they are existing or new build, to continue the sustainability agenda. We need to be ahead of the game”

–Toby Ingle

“If you are used to opening a window to let fresh air in, which the older generation are, then that causes issues in a Passive House.”

Karen added: “You can design and technologise every element of the built environment, but you cannot be definite about how people are going to use a building.

“The social element cannot be underplayed.”

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WORKING IN THE HEALTH SECTOR? IF CARERS ARE NOT FULLY COGNISANT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, OR PROGRAMMES ARE TROUBLESOME TO OPERATE, WHAT IMPACT COULD THAT POTENTIALLY HAVE ON PATIENTS’ HEALTH AND WELLBEING, AS WELL AS THEIR OWN?

As anyone who has moved into a property, old or new, will attest, for all the (often brief) tutorials on heating systems, boiler operation and appliance use, when the deal has completed and the front door closes for that first time, it’s a voyage of discovery.

And the panel invoked such feeling during the discussion, highlighting the importance of care sector workers comprehending technological change alongside their full-time roles.

Sara said: “Staff have to be able to manage this spangdangled kit.

“But a care home, or a small care setting, probably doesn’t have a high enough level of education on such systems.

“And that’s problematic, because if you’re not

TOBY INGLE

Toby has more than 15 years’ experience, specialising in the healthcare and science sectors. Working from concept to delivery, his experience spans primary, secondary, mental health, private health and residential care settings. Drawing on his breadth of experience, Toby also assists clients in the development of clinical masterplans, development control plans and estates strategies, identifying opportunities for new clinical and sustainable development, as well as opportunity for land. Most recently, he supported NHS England on the production of new guidance to support the future delivery of healthcare developments.

technically focused, that kit costs money and creates bills that are fundamentally impossible to pay for.

“A balance of understanding is absolutely key.”

Ian Cornwell, director at Middlesbrough-based information management company Kraken IM, which provides firms with software to digitise supply chains, boost intelligence gathering and minimise risk, called for greater identification with users.

He said: “How do you change design thinking, so it has empathy with the people operating it?

“For example, if I want to install a spaceship, but Alf the caretaker, who’s been at the business forever, is used to a coal-fired furnace, then I’m probably going to have issues down the line.

“It comes down to understanding what you are designing from several different aspects, not just how it looks or performs.”

Dr Gibbeson agreed, highlighting the need for a detailed handover process once construction is complete.

She said: “How does the process of passing on skills and education work?

“Technology moves fast, so we need to keep up with the training.”

Iain Garfield said a good way of bridging any divide is via a soft landings manager, who acts as an interface between architect, builder and employee community to ensure systems are operational and their intricate methods conveyed to users.

He added: “Keeping all building users engaged is so important.

“And if done well, the soft landings process keeps people at the fore of the design.”

Pictured right, Ian Cornwell, director at Kraken IM, speaks during the roundtable

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

WILL SUSTAINABLE DESIGN HELP CARERS DO THEIR JOBS MORE EASILY AND EFFECTIVELY, AND HELP FACILITY OWNERS AND MANAGERS KEEP A HANDLE ON BUDGETS TO CONTINUE OFFERING THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE?

Understanding technology and its workings is one thing, but, said roundtable members, if equipment impacts service delivery, then its potency is negated.

Toby said: “We should be more intuitive.

“We can put sensors in rooms to turn lights on and off, control temperature and alert staff if someone has fallen to the floor.

“But that technology has to be there as a support – it cannot be another thing staff have to do.

“We’ve got to develop and wrap building systems around flows of care.”

Tony added: “If there are problems along the way, it really gets in the way of delivering service.

“And we also need to think about healthcare workers’ needs in design and operation.

“If they’re running up and down corridors with the heating set to 25 degrees, and they have no understanding of how to use the technology to change it, that will make for a really difficult time.”

Iain Garfield, director of estates and facilities at Newcastle University, adds his thoughts to the discussion

KAREN CROWE

Karen has worked in the built environment sector for more than 20 years, and is passionate about how individuals, and the wider collective, can give back to the communities Corstorphine & Wright is working in, while the practice plays its part in responding to the global climate crisis. The aspiration for Corstorphine & Wright is to become renowned as a socially aware, ethical employer and sustainable architecture practice. In her role as head of ESG, Karen is responsible for developing and overseeing all environmental, social and corporate governance policies and procedures, as well as reporting on, collating and disseminating good practice and generated knowledge across Corstorphine & Wright’s internal network, and supporting its winning of work.

WHAT ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ASSET? WHEN TALKING ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CARE SECTOR, JUST HOW SIGNIFICANT IS FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN NEW BUILD SCHEMES AND BUILDING REFURBISHMENTS?

“A development in a city or town centre sounds great, but it’s about the whole scape; there must be understanding of the amenities available beyond the building" –

Iain Garfield

“Half of a building’s lifecycle carbon comes from the construction phase, which means retrofit beats new build every time,” said Ian Cornwell.

So, refurbishment, rather than a wrecking ball, in today’s increasingly sustainable world, is the obvious route to meaningful change?

Yes. But is it happening? Well, not quite.

Despite the palpable environmental benefits, roundtable members cited a number of barriers, such as costs and cultural attitudes, which continue to stymie large-scale retrofitting programmes.

Toby said: “There remains a lot of cynicism around the costs of refurbishment.

“A lot of the time retrofitting is scored out because it won’t deliver core attributes.

“But we really need to challenge the approach.”

Ian Cornwell picked up the discussion, contrasting cost sentiment against the life-impacting ramifications of new build projects.

He said: “This isn’t just about direct monetary costs.

“Statistics show that for every 4400 tonnes of CO2 emitted, there is one excess death.

“And that is why the social and wider costs to society should be factored in any development decision.”

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

Tony agreed, citing more than half-a-decade’s work by Housing 21 to highlight older buildings’ worth in the green agenda.

He said: “Making existing homes viable for the future is far more sustainable than knocking things down and rebuilding everything.

“We’ve modernised and refurbished properties to the point they all now carry a C-rated energy performance certificate (the Government-stipulated level required of social landlords by 2030).”

Iain Garfield too spotlighted a prevalent case study, this time Newcastle University’s revamp of the towering 1960s Henry Daysh Building, which straddles the city’s Claremont Road, to emphasise the inherent value of retrofitting.

He added: “The property had no insulation and single glazed windows.

“We took it back to its concrete frame and repurposed it, and the carbon savings were massive.”

SO, WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION LOOK LIKE ACROSS THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR?

In a world of anacronyms and buzz phrases, it shouldn’t perhaps come as too much of a surprise the green agenda has many a shorthand term.

And from a simple few clicks on a search engine, it takes no time to arrive at one of them – the sustainability tightrope.

Conjuring images of the planet in full-on funambulist mode, teetering precariously on an ever-eroding highwire, it rather neatly frames the vertiginous scale of the climate emergency.

And panellists were quick to emphasise the severity, with Ian Cornwell urging much greater awareness and application of environmentally-friendlier alternatives in the building phase.

He said: “The construction industry produces 12 per cent of the planet’s emissions, and healthcare construction is a demonstrable part of that.

“We need to think about constructing with the lowest possible carbon footprint, choosing design materials that suit and which fit with a specific building need.”

And such change is beginning to happen, said Ian, with governing legislation becoming ever more focused on sustainability.

He added: “At the moment, there are lots of standards, but the regulations are pretty powerless.

“However, we’re going to see a slew of regulations coming through.

“Change is already happening in the EU, and there are

a lot of US states that require reports on a development’s body count number.

“And if they are not supplied, a project doesn’t get a building permit.

“Reporting and regulation is going to get a lot tighter.”

However, while acknowledging the statutory oscillation, both Karen and Sara spoke with caution about the impact of bureaucratic change when it comes to the care industry.

With lenders progressively factoring ESG requirements into investment decisions, they warned such increased stringency actually runs risk of creating an unhealthy paradox.

Karen said: “That the funding criteria is changing, and that operators and their supply chains must have carbon plans, is a very powerful thing.

“But it also means we have a model of care that is fundamentally underpinned by someone making a profit.

“And until you get real traction that social impact investing is ethical and not a box-ticking exercise, then you’re going to find it hard to stop that model.”

Sara added: “There is a systemic disconnect between buildings, people and the planet, as well as care and provision.

“On one hand, we’re talking about the future for people, be it social care, a health society or the NHS, and on the other, we’re talking about what the banks, funders and regulators want.

“There is no connection in that narrative, and we need reintegration; if we continue to fight around the edges, it’s not going to work.

“We must start with the person and understand their individual needs, and then wrap a sustainable solution around them.

“And it must all be done in a holistic manner.”

Sara Thakkar, chief executive at Camphill Village Trust, expresses a point during the roundtable

Feature: Building a more sustainable healthcare sector

The magical benefits of hosting a corporate Christmas party at Wynyard Hall

The holiday season is a time for celebration and unity, and what better way to bring your corporate team together than by hosting a memorable Christmas party? Among the many breathtaking venues, Wynyard Hall stands out as a remarkable choice. Nestled among the picturesque landscapes of County Durham, the enchanting location offers numerous benefits for hosting a corporate Christmas party that will leave a lasting impression on employees.

www.wynyardhall.co.uk @WynyardHall

Captivating ambiance

Wynyard Hall's timeless beauty provides an enchanting backdrop for your corporate Christmas party.

With its stunning architecture, adorned halls and exquisite festive decorations, the venue exudes a magical atmosphere that instantly elevates the celebratory spirit.

From the moment your team enters the grand entrance to the awe-inspiring event spaces, they will be immersed in a world of elegance and wonder, setting the stage for an unforgettable experience.

Versatile event spaces

Wynyard Hall boasts an array of versatile event spaces that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of your corporate Christmas party.

Whether you're planning an intimate gathering or a large-scale celebration, the venue offers a variety of beautifully designed rooms that allow you the flexibility to create a bespoke event that perfectly aligns with your company's vision, ensuring an exceptional experience for your team.

Culinary delights

A corporate Christmas party at Wynyard Hall is not only a feast for the eyes but also a treat for the taste buds. The venue's exceptional culinary team excels at crafting exquisite menus that showcase the finest ingredients picked from the on-site kitchen garden. From delectable canapés to sumptuous main courses and indulgent desserts, every dish is a culinary masterpiece that delights and satisfies.

Accompanied by a carefully curated selection of wines and beverages, the gastronomic journey at

Wynyard Hall adds a delicious dimension to your corporate Christmas celebration.

Corporate accommodation

Wynyard Hall offers exquisite corporate accommodation that combines luxury, comfort and convenience for business travellers.

The elegant rooms and suites are meticulously designed with attention to detail, creating a harmonious blend of contemporary style and classic sophistication.

Each accommodation option is equipped with modern amenities and plush furnishings, ensuring a restful and rejuvenating stay.

The tranquil surroundings and picturesque views provide a serene ambiance, allowing guests to unwind after a long day of meetings or festivities.

With impeccable service and personalised touches, Wynyard Hall's corporate accommodation offers a seamless and memorable experience for professionals seeking a truly exceptional stay.

Stress-free planning

When it comes to organising a corporate Christmas party, the logistics can be overwhelming.

However, by choosing Wynyard Hall as your venue, you gain the support of a dedicated events team with extensive experience in managing corporate celebrations.

-

For more information about Wynyard Hall’s corporate Christmas party offer, or to book a place for the forthcoming festive period, visit www. wynyardhall. co.uk or call reception on 01740 644811.

From initial planning to execution, the attentive staff will work closely with you, handling all the intricate details to ensure a seamless and stress-free experience. Their expertise, combined with the venue's comprehensive facilities and services, allows you to focus on enjoying the festivities alongside your team, knowing every aspect is taken care of professionally.

Choosing Wynyard Hall as the venue for your corporate Christmas party guarantees a remarkable and rewarding experience for your employees.

From the captivating ambiance to the versatile event spaces, culinary delights, team-building opportunities and stress-free planning, this delightful location has it all.

Embrace the magic of the season and create cherished memories that will inspire and motivate your team throughout the coming year.

Hospitality_ Advertising feature_Wynyard Hall

Wynyard Hall

-

Delivering talent at all levels

People are central to any business’ success, and helping firms secure the workers they need to thrive is specialist recruitment and outsourced talent services partner Jackson Hogg. Known for providing recruitment, HR, Talent Partnerships and training services to businesses across STEM-driven sectors, it is now rolling out JH Industrial to better connect companies and the temporary labour market. Here, Steven Hugill speaks to Matthew Robertson, associate director – operations and engineering, and Jake Richardson, head of operations and supply chain, to find out more.

www.jacksonhogg.com @JacksonHoggRec

Jackson Hogg

To find out more about JH Industrial and how your business could benefit from Jackson Hogg’s specialist recruitment and outsourced talent services support, visit www. jacksonhogg. com, email info@ jacksonhogg.com or call 0191 580 0495.

How do you define a business?

Is it through market-leading products or a geographical breadth of service?

Is it strong financial management and a commitment to continued innovation?

Is it robust environmental, social and governance policy?

In truth, all are crucial components in creating – and sustaining – a successful organisation.

But there’s another, more eminently valuable, mechanism that truly delineates a business: its people.

From overseeing the smooth running of day-today operations to sparking invention and cultural progression, employees are the lynchpin around which every firm moves forward.

And helping organisations access the staff they need to maintain their momentum is specialist recruitment and outsourced talent services partner Jackson Hogg.

Reputed for providing recruitment, HR, Talent Partnerships and training services to businesses across STEM-driven sectors, the firm operates as a trusted, permanent ally in an ever-changing employment world.

And its offer is growing stronger still with JH Industrial.

A conduit between companies and the temporary labour market, the venture helps businesses find staff, from production line operators to CNC fabricators and platers, and myriad roles between.

Central to its operation is Jackson Hogg’s extensive client list and STEM sector knowledge, which it is using to pair employers, such as manufacturers, engineers, oil and gas operators, distributors and food producers, with the right employees.

“There is a big gap in the market for a high-end, service-led offering,” says Matthew Robertson, associate director – operations and engineering.

“And that is what we are providing with JH Industrial.

“We have the talent ready to go; we’re able to supply one person through the tens to 100.

“If a business needs sickness cover, or a worker doesn’t arrive for a shift, we can act the same day.

“Similarly, if a firm needs 20 staff for the next week, we’re able to do that too,” says Matthew, who leads JH Industrial alongside Jake Richardson, the firm’s head of operations and supply chain.

He adds: “But what is equally beneficial for companies is that we are geared to do it all.

“Our infrastructure and set-up is well established; we have in-house compliance specialists and a strong internal audit system and payroll capabilities, which provides a comprehensive service and takes the burden away from clients.”

The rich talent pool to which Matthew refers is born from Jackson Hogg’s wider commitment to people and their progression, a pledge bound in an internal mantra that attests ‘everyone deserves to love what they do’.

And with such sentiment at its core, Matthew says the personal connections forged between the business and both companies and candidates is allowing it to piece the recruitment puzzle together with much greater perception.

“We are really close to the communities in which we work, and creating opportunities for people to return to employment is very satisfying,” says Matthew, whose JH Industrial team also includes Jaymie Barry, senior consultant – temporary operations and supply chain; Mathew Johnson, team leader industrial; and contract and finance co-ordinator Suzanne Lowes.

He says: “And we’re proud to be providing a better service.

“There are a lot of agencies delivering temporary labour to the market, but our offer differs significantly because we put the people element into recruitment.

“Because of COVID-19, things, for some, became more transactional.

“But we’re out on-site with clients, and we make candidates feel they’re more than a number and are a part of the business and culture they’re entering.”

Jake adds: “The fact we meet them provides a level of value they’ve probably never experienced from other agencies.”

And while benefiting clients and candidates, Matthew and Jake say the endeavour – which carries a Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority licence to work across the food and packaging industries, in the process opening up potential further markets –will significantly supplement Jackson Hogg’s sister operations.

Jake says: “Clients who already rely on our expert support to find permanent workers know how we operate, and they know they will get the same high levels of service when looking for temporary labour.”

Matthew says: “We’re building on what Jackson

Hogg already provides, with JH Industrial helping create an end-to-end talent business.

“We’ve already started growing our team to help more clients, and are looking to further expand across the coming months.

“We’re beginning with a North East focus, but we have a view to go national.

“We know our clients and we know their cultures, and by switching their searches for temporary staff to JH Industrial, not only do they strengthen the quality of such, but they also gain valuable consistency across all recruitment formats.”

He adds: “We’re keen to speak to more businesses about their needs and challenges, to create real solutions and partnerships that unlock potential through people.”

Pictured, above, from left, Matthew Robertson, Jackson Hogg associate director - operations and engineering, and Jake Richardson, head of operations and supply chain

CREATING A TALENT PATHWAY FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team

Northumbria University & North East England Chamber of Commerce

Businesses are nothing without their people. But in a world of increasing financial demands and shallower employment pools, many are finding growth goals stymied by their inability to source and retain suitably skilled staff.

However, with challenge comes opportunity, and the Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team seminar, held by Northumbria University alongside the North East England Chamber of Commerce, provided a blueprint on how to nurture and strengthen teams for long-term success.

Words by Steven Hugill

From attracting staff and fostering their development, to creating a pipeline of future leaders and flexing with technological and social change, the conference featured Dr Helen Charlton, Northumbria University head of apprenticeship for leadership and HR management, and John McCabe, North East England Chamber of Commerce chief executive. Held in partnership with North East Times Magazine, and hosted at Newcastle Eagles’ Vertu Motors Arena, the event also included insight from Vahid Walker, Walker Subsea co-founder and technical director; Alix Bolton, Walker Filtration group head of HR; and Paul Blake, Eagles’ owner and managing director.

Photography by Angela Carrington and Krzysztof Furgala

Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team Northumbria University & North East England Chamber of Commerce

WHAT DOES THE NORTH EAST’S EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE AT PRESENT?

With rough financial waves adding to lingering pandemic choppiness, the labour market finds itself caught in a perfect storm.

“Recruitment and retention is one of the most important issues impacting businesses in our region today,” said John McCabe, chief executive at the North East England Chamber of Commerce.

“Some businesses have already stopped recruiting due to cash pressures, and only four in ten across the North East tell us they’re working at full capacity.”

And companies’ ability to make hires, said John, is being equally affected by a dearth of talent, which is exacerbating a pandemic exodus and further healthrelated attrition.

He said: “We have a higher number of people out of work due to caring responsibilities and early retirement following COVID-19, and the region also has 43 per cent more people inactive due to ill health, relative to the national average.”

WHAT ACTION CAN FIRMS TAKE TO ADDRESS SUCH CHALLENGES?

With talent conveyor belts thinner and some businesses more able than others to match employees’ rising financial demands amid the cost of living crisis, John urged companies to take a “proactive approach to growing their own”.

This, he said, would bypass contemporary shortages and lay pathways for longer-term

expansion, creating a twin effect of strengthening workers’ roots with an organisation while preparing the ground for saplings.

He said: “Businesses are facing incredibly harsh pressures, but if they can invest in developing their workforces, they will see the benefit before those that choose not to.

“It makes business sense; if a firm has to look externally to fill a senior leadership vacancy, it will have a measurable impact on performance.

“But if someone who has progressed through that organisation takes the role, they are much more likely to share its ethos.

“And by becoming a company known for developing employees, that business becomes a clear option for jobseekers.”

And John said such pre-emptive measures will provide great momentum in an employment landscape primed to expand thanks to headlinegrabbing private investment and a proposed £4.2 billion north of the region devolution deal.

He added: “The North East had the best job creation record from private sector investment of any region outside London last year.

“And the opportunity isn’t over yet, with Fulwell73 and Recharge Industries promising the largest job creation in the North East since Nissan came to Sunderland.

“It means there will be even more demand for talent – so businesses must create a strategy to retain outstanding employees while developing more of them.”

“We would be going backwards if we reverted to completely officebased working again. We need to leave some oldschool thoughts in the past – like the more than 100-yearold Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm routine"

–Alix

head

HR “If people finish their training but have no opportunity for progress, then you have less chance of retaining them”

Bolton, Walker Filtration group

of

–Vahid Walker, Walker Subsea co-founder and technical director

Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team Northumbria University & North East England Chamber of Commerce

NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

To learn more about the importance of investing in workforce development and developing your future leaders, and to find out how Northumbria University can help you upskill and support your team, visit: www.northumbria.ac.uk/business-training

those who are experts in their field, but not professional people managers.

She said: “It means we can have underqualified and inexperienced people leading organisations’ most valuable asset – their people.

“We need to tackle that.”

HOW CAN BUSINESSES ENSURE DEVELOPMENT ROUTES ARE STRONG?

A key element, said Dr Helen Charlton, head of apprenticeship for leadership and HR management at Northumbria University, is education.

Citing the university’s suite of vocational courses, which include the senior leader higher apprenticeship and the senior people professional higher apprenticeship, Dr Charlton said: “Our executive education provides an opportunity to develop managers in organisations at customisable scales to their needs.

“And it is very effective; a leading accountancy firm in the region refocused from graduate recruitment in favour of our three-year chartered manager degree apprenticeship, for example.

“Our courses lead students to chartered qualifications and provide businesses with workers who are steeped in their culture and equipped to lead.”

Vahid Walker, co-founder and technical director at Wallsend-based offshore engineer Walker Subsea, took the discussion further, highlighting the importance of passageways for employees to take more steps with an organisation.

“If people finish their training but have no opportunity for progress, then you have less chance of retaining them,” said Vahid, whose company has hired a number of graduates from Newcastle and Northumbria universities.

He added: “It’s a little bit like sport; you don’t really want to make your best player the team’s coach and have them sign timesheets all day.

“But that does happen in business, and we offer a slight variation to counter.

“Our managers remain engaged thanks to our flat company structure.

“If a project comes up that suits a certain person, they take the lead and select a supporting team.”

RETAINING SUCH A HANDS-ON APPROACH, THOUGH, IS ONLY ONE ELEMENT OF MANAGEMENT. IS INDUSTRY DOING ENOUGH TO ENSURE LEADERS ARE SUITABLY EQUIPPED TO OVERSEE INDIVIDUALS’ AND TEAMS’ PROGRESS?

Citing management as a “tricky profession”, Dr Charlton warned of ‘accidental managers’, a CMI description of

"Businesses are facing incredibly harsh pressures, but if they can invest in developing their workforces, they will see the benefit before those that choose not to. And by becoming a company known for developing employees, that business becomes a clear option for jobseekers”

–John McCabe, North East England Chamber of Commerce chief executive

Vahid agreed, referring to the suppleness of his business that allows for quarterly appraisals and the instant raising of skills flags through training managers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with staff.

And they were both united in the need for bigger companies to improve upskilling mechanisms.

Dr Charlton said: “The problem with larger organisations is that management culture becomes quite complex to manage.

“They don’t have the luxury of sitting in the room and seeing what level of damage they may be experiencing through under-equipped management.”

Vahid added: “If a firm’s training department is so remote it requires a survey to find skills gaps, then maybe it’s a bit too far removed.”

AMID TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND COVID19’S LEGACY ON WORKING PATTERNS, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT EMPLOYERS AND SKILLS PROVIDERS KEEP PACE WITH THE CHANGE?

Fitness commitment counsellor; algorithm bias auditor; data detective; cyber calamity forecaster – all jobs that are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s world.

And, said Alix Bolton, group head of HR at Birtleybased Walker Filtration, such evolution – which she told audience members will see posts like cashier and telemarketer continue to fade – must be greeted with a change of thinking around work, training and management.

She said: “Eighty five per cent of jobs that will exist in 2030 don’t exist now, and 65 per cent of children entering primary school now will hold a job that doesn’t yet exist.

“Employment is changing, and it’s so important we think about new skills around creativity, innovation, risk-taking and leadership.”

DOES THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, THREATEN FUTURE PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT?

Both Alix and Paul Blake, owner and managing director of Newcastle Eagles basketball club, spoke of finding a balance between software and human activity.

Highlighting an opportunity to redefine workers’ skills for the betterment of business departments, Alix said: “Technology works well where you can redesign repetitive areas of operations.

“For example, we’ve just invested in robot cells at Walker Filtration, to take over some manual work in the building of products.

“And that has given us the opportunity to think about the skillsets we need to redeploy people across the business.”

Calling artificial intelligence an “opportunity and a threat”, Paul added: “I remember the days of sending a letter and waiting two weeks for a reply.

“Technology – certainly the way we sell tickets and market events, for example – has completely changed things, but it has unfortunately impacted on job roles too.

“And the next step is to see the extent to which artificial intelligence moves things on.”

HOW IMPORTANT ARE HYBRID WORKING CONDITIONS AND COMPANIES’ COMMITMENTS TO AREAS LIKE SUSTAINABILITY A FACTOR IN ATTRACTING, RETAINING AND DEVELOPING TALENT?

Citing Office for National Statistics findings, which highlight flexible hours and home working as prime factors in job searches, John said: “Employee demands are changing and we know, from talking to young professionals, that more are considering job options based on the work/life balance than ever before.

“But firms must also be aware of inclusivity.

“Ill health, mental wellbeing and lack of accessible opportunities are all barriers to people who have so much to offer the workplace.

“Taking proactive steps around these areas will undoubtedly lead to a pool of untapped talent.”

Alix agreed, arguing for the removal of certain “out-of-date” customs and the wider introduction of sustainability drives and four-day weeks, for example, to make for “really positive experiences”.

She said: “We would be going backwards if we reverted to completely office-based working again.

“We need to leave some old-school thoughts in the past – like the more than 100-year-old Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm routine – and take good bits for the future.

“We sit around the dinner table telling our children they can work in whatever field they wish.

“But we’re in danger of that generation coming into the workforce and saying, ‘what is this!?’, if we don’t create conditions that make for really great places to work.”

Paul reiterated the benefits of flexible working. He added: “Specific members of staff have sales targets, and I don’t mind where they make calls or have meetings as long as they’re reaching their targets.”

AS CHALLENGES CONTINUE, WHAT ARE THE KEY PROCESSES LEADERS CAN IMPART ON STAFF TO ENSURE UNITED TEAMS AND FUTURE SUCCESS?

Referencing his Eagles’ contemporaries, Paul hailed farsightedness and a democratic structure.

He said: “We have a very egalitarian team, and it’s all about imparting vision to them – and that should never stop.”

Highlighting the phrase ‘followship’ as a key strut in any leadership model, Alix added: “There isn’t a list of essential leader qualities, rather a list of feelings of a follower.

“And, if we take those into our practice, we will attract, grow, retain and develop talent in our brilliant businesses in this brilliant region.”

“The problem with larger organisations is that they don’t have the luxury of sitting in the room and seeing what level of damage they may be experiencing through underequipped management”

Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team Northumbria University & North East England Chamber of Commerce

–Dr Helen Charlton, Northumbria University head of apprenticeship for leadership and HR management

Supporting business growth in County Durham

Hazel Sykes and Guy Bashford, two experienced members of Business Durham's business engagement team, share their career backgrounds and shed light on the extensive support they provide to businesses in County Durham.

www.businessdurham.co.uk @_BusinessDurham

Hazel Sykes, a seasoned professional in HR and business development, brings her extensive experience and a proven track record of forging and nurturing vital relationships to propel businesses forward in her role as business engagement and account manager.

With a focus on skills and businesses in the south of the county, Hazel is committed to providing unparalleled support to local companies.

Her career spans three decades, during which she has attracted inward investment and provided ongoing support to indigenous companies.

Leveraging her HR expertise and business engagement experience, she consistently delivers creative solutions to drive business growth.

Hazel secured her current role at Business Durham by aligning her plans to permanently relocate to the North East with an opportunity that arose.

She is now a key point of contact for businesses in

Business Durham

-

For more information about the support available from Business Durham, visit www. businessdurham. co.uk

south Durham, collaborating closely with companies from areas such as Newton Aycliffe, Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle.

Initially serving as a net-zero lead, Hazel transitioned into skills development and is presently Business Durham's skills lead for the county.

Hazel heads the collaboration with the North East Institute of Technology (NEIoT) on behalf of Business Durham.

A partnership between further education colleges, led locally by New College Durham, universities and businesses, NEIoT is working to address the common concern of finding skilled talent.

Pictured, below, Guy Bashford, Business Durham business engagement and account manager

The partnership aims to develop high-level technical skills and qualifications that align with employers' current and future needs.

The support also extends to informing schoolchildren, teachers and parents about the range of remarkable businesses in the area and the diverse career opportunities available.

Guy Bashford, Business Durham's business engagement and account manager for the east of the county, brings nearly two decades’ experience in offering advice and support.

He has advised entrepreneurs and businesses on various issues, including finance, business strategy, market opportunities and environmental performance.

Guy's extensive knowledge of the challenges businesses face, and the importance of having the right support in place, makes him a valuable asset for local businesses.

In his previous role as a business engagement officer on the Durham Business Opportunities Programme,

Guy helped local SMEs identify and access market opportunities and connect with business support initiatives.

He recently took on the role of business engagement and account manager for the east Durham area, working with larger business clients who face more complex challenges.

Guy is also Business Durham’s low-carbon lead, with responsibilities that include assisting businesses in their net-zero journey by promoting sustainable practices and helping them reduce their carbon footprint.

He collaborates with the council's low-carbon team to develop practical energy efficiency guides and identify renewable energy solutions for businesses.

Both Hazel and Guy emphasise the tailored support they provide to local businesses.

Business Durham's approach revolves around understanding the unique challenges faced by each company and delving deep into their needs and requirements.

By doing so, they can offer comprehensive assistance, whether it's helping businesses with expansion, venturing into new markets, attracting and retaining top-tier talent or navigating challenging times.

They recognise that nurturing existing businesses is just as crucial as attracting new investment to the area.

Business Durham's support is adaptable to the ever-changing needs of businesses; it actively listens to businesses, recognising that each one faces unique circumstances.

By staying informed and engaged, they ensure they are a reliable point of contact, ready to provide timely assistance and match businesses with relevant support programmes and resources.

Hazel and Guy's work has yielded success stories, such as helping Bishops Beds win contracts worth

millions of pounds, assisting Central Doorset Manufacturing in expanding its business and workforce, and supporting Clear Climate in diversifying its services while contributing to the environment.

County Durham offers a wealth of benefits for businesses.

Its excellent connectivity, diverse commercial properties, highly-skilled workforce from local colleges and universities, and thriving business community provide fertile ground for growth and expansion.

The ongoing regeneration and development across the county further enhances the local economy and creates new opportunities.

Business Durham's support and expertise offers significant advantages to businesses in County Durham.

By working with its team, businesses gain access to a wealth of knowledge, resources and partnerships.

They receive tailored guidance on funding opportunities, market expansion, sustainable practices and innovative strategies.

Businesses can thrive with the reassurance that they have a reliable partner to navigate the landscape and accelerate their growth journey.

In summary, Business Durham's business engagement team combines decades of experience, a deep understanding of business challenges and a commitment to providing tailored support.

Its expertise and guidance empowers local businesses to grow, succeed and contribute to the vibrant business landscape of County Durham.

Pictured, from left to right, are Business Durham business engagement and account managers Andrea McGuigan, Hazel Sykes and Guy Bashford

Samuel Knight

Steve’s mission is to build the world’s best renewable energy and sustainable transportation recruitment consultancy delivering engineering and technology solutions. He is driven to work collaboratively to achieve a zero-carbon future. Having had success with his own businesses, Steve is committed to helping those starting out with their own journeys via mentoring, speaking and investing in startups. Contact him on LinkedIn.

Scaling a global business from the North East

The North East is home to a thriving community of business, innovation and success stories to be proud of. One of those is Steve Rawlingson, founder of Samuel Knight. And having scaled his multi-million-pound global business from the North East, the award-winning entrepreneur now has his sights set on helping others do the same.

www.samuel-knight.com

@SamuelKnightLtd

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevenrawlingson/

I founded my business Samuel Knight from a singleperson office in Newcastle in 2004.

My vision was to build a specialist recruitment company offering solutions in renewable energy and sustainable transportation.

Fast forward to 2023, and Samuel Knight is an eightfigure business.

We operate across 48 countries, with offices throughout the UK, US and the Middle East, and employ more than 100 consultants.

From Newcastle, I scaled a business to become a global success.

The North East is such a great place to do business that my mission has now evolved to help others do the same.

Why grow North?

Launching Samuel Knight in the North East was a conscious choice.

It’s a misconception that to grow a large business, you must do it from London.

As a single, full-time dad, I was settled in the North East with my two children, and already knew the benefits I would see from growing my business here.

Firstly, I had an amazing network in the North, from connections I’d made in the recruitment industry to people who had mentored me, and who could advise me on the mechanics of growing a business.

Secondly, there’s an abundance of talent in the North East; employees are loyal and retention is strong.

At Samuel Knight, we’ve had several brilliant graduates from Newcastle and Northumbria universities, who’ve honed their skills and built rewarding careers.

And finally, the associated costs of growing a

business are significantly lower in the North compared to the South.

Our 12,000sq ft office in Newcastle costs around 75 per cent less than our office in London, which is considerably smaller.

Local values, global vision

When founding Samuel Knight, my plan was to build a company I knew could make a difference to the industries we work with, a company people would feel proud to work for.

This ethos has underpinned our growth at every stage. The catalyst for Samuel Knight to achieve exponential growth was our determination in trading internationally.

Right from the start, I used existing connections and formed new ones, built on my expertise in the recruitment industry and sold our solutions with passion. Trading internationally delivered bigger margins for us than the average business in the North East, which fuelled our growth.

In our first year, we had four staff, working from a tiny office in Newcastle.

By year three, we had 20 staff and were generating £10 million in sales.

As we established our processes and market position, economy of scale kicked in.

We knew what worked and we’d carved out a niche, using innovative solutions and building an impressive list of companies we worked with.

When we reached year four, our revenue was £18 million with 50 employees and offices in Newcastle, Bristol and London.

In year five, I knew we had something special.

I recognised the potential to go even bigger, knowing that with the right finance partners, our scale-up journey

would reach the next level.

At the time, though, I knew nothing about institutional investment, so I set out to learn everything I could.

By the end of year five, we’d partnered with a growth equity investor and raised just under £6 million working capital to scale the business.

The finance allowed us to invest in new technologies, recruit more staff and ultimately launch in the US, where we had identified a huge market for our niche of engineering and technology recruitment solutions.

Within seven months of launch, we generated $10.7 million from the US market.

Now, the Samuel Knight group consists of Samuel Knight Technology, Samuel Knight Energy, Samuel Knight Rail and Samuel Knight Projects.

We have a little more than 100 staff, offices in cities across the world and are an eight-figure business.

We’ve invested in staff and have committed to growing our team to 170 people by this time next year.

Five factors to scale

Ten years ago, sitting in that small office in Newcastle, my business was just an equally small idea. Now, it’s massive.

Each business needs its own magic formula to scale.

From my experiences, here are the five factors that should form part of it:

• Risks lead to rewards

Taking risks doesn’t mean being reckless. Evaluate your situation. Know which risks you’re prepared to take and disregard the ones that won’t deliver rewards

• Establish solid foundations

When you found a business, you have to get up and go, you have to make things work. But to scale, it’s essential you have solid foundations across operations, finance and sales. This will facilitate sustainable growth and minimise risk to your business

• Don’t be afraid of debt or raising equity

Investment propels your business to the next level. Sure, you can grow organically, but this is a slower process. Getting the right financial levers in place between debt and equity gives you the power to scale at a much faster pace and deepen your impact

• People and values are everything

Hire good people (and don’t shy away from hiring people better than you). When you have a team of people who

believe in your vision, mission and values, they’ll all be striving for growth with you

• Carve out your niche

It’s crucial to define your niche. Having a niche allows you to penetrate a core market and showcase yourself as a subject matter expert. Then, understand the buying habits of your audience and target them directly, building a marketing strategy that differentiates you. To grow a business, being outstanding at one thing is so much more effective than being OK at lots of things

After learning these lessons while scaling my own business, my priority now is to give back through mentoring, speaking and investing.

The North East is full of brilliant people and brilliant businesses – let’s continue to champion scale-up journeys.

From call centre worker to chief executive

Learning doesn’t end when you enter the workplace. On the contrary, supporting employment with skills development is crucial to career progression. Here, James Craft, chief executive at South Shieldsbased regional enterprise agency TEDCO, explains how he has benefited from a University of Sunderland apprenticeship, and why others should consider a route honing future leaders’ abilities.

www.sunderland.ac.uk

@sunderlanduni

www.tedco.org

@TEDCOLTD

When the spark of a business idea erupts, and you’re in need of critical enterprise advice to get started, then you may have been fortunate enough to come across the path of James Craft.

For more than 20 years, Seaham-born James has helped hundreds of start-ups flourish across the North East through roles with Barclays Bank, Santander, Business Link, RTC and, for the last five years, regional enterprise agency TEDCO.

His practical approach, coupled with his ability to absorb business knowledge and grow from interactions with clients, has seen some of those start-ups expand from one-person operations to multi-million-pound companies.

James’ steady progression, from call centre sales to becoming a chief executive, is also a remarkable achievement, having left school with just a handful of GCSEs and deciding university wasn’t right for him.

However, in preparing for his latest role as TEDCO chief executive, the 41-year-old knew it was time to develop himself academically which, in turn, would inspire the team of advisors he manages.

He is now more than halfway through a senior leader apprenticeship at the University of Sunderland, which incorporates a masters of business administration (MBA) qualification, and everyone from his team to its clients are reaping the benefits.

He says: “I’ve always had an appetite for learning but was always a practical learner, rather than the textbook academic side.

“But I’m pleased how it’s worked out; my appetite for learning is much better than 20 years ago.

“It was the right time to learn about leadership as I moved into the chief executive role, discovering what gaps there were in my knowledge and putting me in a more rounded position to do the job.”

The senior leader apprenticeship is a 22-month programme encompassing the strategic skills required

University of SunderlandFor more information about University of Sunderland’s senior leader apprenticeship (MBA) programme, visit go.sunderland. ac.uk/ SeniorLeaderMBA Alternatively, call 0191 515 3361.

of a senior leader.

It explores leadership and leader identity, and what that means to each individual in the context of their organisation.

James says: “The programme fits around my family and work life.

“It’s massively fulfilled my expectations.

“Learning from my peers on the course and their shared experiences has been invaluable.

“It challenges you in the right way, and makes you question your own beliefs and practices as you approach challenges within your own organisation.

“Everything we learn is relevant and timely, and we can apply it in our own business practices.

“This approach allowed me, in real-time, to work on areas at TEDCO where we needed to be more innovative and move the business forward.

“For example, we’ve implemented a new CRM and HR system while I’ve been on the course, making staff feel more motivated and giving them a voice and a seat at the table.”

James adds: “I want everyone at TEDCO to buy into what I’m learning through their own self-development, which leads to even better support for clients we work with.

“We can give them better knowledge and cuttingedge information, which allows them a greater chance to grow in a competitive market.”

Networking at Hotel du Vin

North East Times Magazine, in association with Lambert Construction, welcomed attendees to Hotel du Vin for an afternoon of networking, in support of Dragonfly Cancer Trust. We invited Sanjeev Vadhera, chair of trustees, and Ian Lambert, ambassador and fundraiser, to discuss the vital work of the charity and how business can get involved.

N ING HORIZONS

Words by Colin Young Photography by Mike Sreenan

A world leader in the fight against terrorism and deeply entrenched in tackling terminal and life-limiting diseases, Kromek is a flagship company for both North East and UK innovation, with a client list boasting stellar names such as NASA, US Homeland Security and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. However, as chief executive and co-founder Dr Arnab Basu tells Colin Young, things are only just beginning for the Sedgefield-based, Durham University spin-out, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.

4Dr Arnab Basu has perfected the art of international business travel.

And it's just as well.

As chief executive and co-founder of Kromek, a world leader in medical imaging and nuclear detection, the past 20 years have been a life of planes, trains and automobiles to put the Sedgefield-based company firmly at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and terminal diseases.

Kromek started as a Durham University spinout, and after becoming the first resident of North East Technology Park (NETPark), he has constantly toured the globe, with the company today doing business in more than 50 countries.

Arnab, awarded an MBE in 2014 for services to regional development and international trade, was clocking up more than 350,000 air miles a year before the pandemic, and reckons he still spends six per cent of his time in the skies above.

Surviving days without sleep, and living on caffeine and adrenaline have become the norm for Arnab, who, despite turning 50 this year, maintains the energy of the young student who returned from a trip of a lifetime with his new bride to start Kromek’s journey.

When it comes to dealing with jet lag, his advice is simple.

"Don’t get lagged," he says.

“Somebody is always awake somewhere, so when you go to Asia, you can add bolts onto either side of the time zone and literally have a 24-hour cycle.

"I never get lagged; I just don't sleep very much.

"I watch three movies on the plane on the way out, to stay awake and stay in sync with the destination time zone, and then catch up on sleep on the way home.”

Staying in the same place, though, goes against Arnab’s natural instincts.

He adds: “I'm naturally a fidgety person - I can't sit still even when I'm in the office - I've got to be on the move.

“The most tiring period of my working life was during COVID-19, and I certainly don't think I would have been suited to banking, either.

“I couldn't cope just staring at a computer screen all day."

Yes, Arnab could have been a banker.

His reference takes us back to 2003, when Kromek was launched, shortly after he had returned to the UK following a three-month journey across India with new bride Beatrijs.

A shoulder injury ended Arnab's childhood dream of becoming a cricketer and showcasing his medium pace bowling – though he admits it was never a realistic possibility – and, after graduating in Natural Sciences, in Kolkata, in 1996, he decided to continue his studies in the UK, rather than join his father's firm.

Graduating with a first-class honours degree in engineering at Northumbria University, he then took a PhD at Durham, where his entrepreneurial skills caught tutors’ eyes.

He says: "I was marketing Northumbria in India

and Asia, recruiting students, which would pay for my trips to India.

"I always had that in me to a certain extent, and that made the university think, 'this Arnab would be a good person to work with'.

"I'm not an academic – the PhD was another piece of work I had to do.

“I was there at eight in the morning and used to leave at five o'clock.

“I finished dot on three years, as I knew the scholarship funding would run out.

"I had people around me doing PhDs for six years having a lot more fun, I'm sure."

When Arnab and Belgium-born Beatrijs returned, he was set to join an investment bank in London until Durham University’s Professor Max Robinson stepped in, creating one of the institution's first spinout businesses.

It proved a masterstroke.

Arnab, Ben Cantwell and three professors formed Durham Scientific Crystals, moving into the Mountjoy Centre, in Durham University's main campus, before switching to NETPark.

There were cows grazing where NETPark's gentle warren of rectangular glass-fronted buildings, research centres, science labs and unexpected dead-ends are now – nature just beginning to take hold of disused Winterton Hospital grounds.

Arnab was convinced the team could commercialise their new product, cadmium zinc telluride, or CZT, a unique semiconductor still transforming medical imaging and the fight against terrorism today.

He says: “The first day, I had to find an office, a second-hand computer, call myself a chief executive and make a start.

"I found a desk and I had a piece of paper, which was the first patent.

“Today, we have 240 patents and more than 500 other pieces of intellectual property.

“It's been a journey.

“We had a room in Mountjoy and a lab in the physics engineering building, and we needed more space; the lab was a little

"I was in Japan probably 20 times over three years, and we developed a portfolio of products for the civil nuclear market, including ones now used in every EDF power station – all designed because of that incident at Fukushima”

Dr Arnab Basu

room – a proper kitchen sink where Ben did his PhD.

"We started talking with Durham County Council and NETPark was coming up.

“They broke the ground in 2003, we were the first tenants in a multi-occupancy building and it was opened by Tony Blair a year later.

"We grew and grew to a point where we took over the whole building, and then we built a new one, the headquarters, and moved in here in 2010.

“We've now got a building housing our bio-security team and activities, and have since acquired a couple of businesses in California and Pittsburgh.

“The last 20 years have been phenomenal," adds Arnab, who is chairman of Durham City Cricket Club, where sons Timon, 16, and Emile, 12, play.

“We have grown up together with NETPark.

“It's been a journey of real kinship with the county council and Business Durham, and this will remain a hub for us.

“Personally, I've got a very strong connection to the region.

“This is my home. And a big part of our brains trust is from here.

“This is going to be home for a long time.”

Before changing its name to Kromek in 2008, the company had already secured contracts with the Home Office and the European Space Agency.

Arnab also negotiated the company’s first significant investment from a New York financial institution.

The game-changer came two years earlier, when US and UK security services unearthed a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives on transatlantic flights, disguised as soft drinks.

While a horrifying prospect, the subsequent stringent security measures imposed in airports across the world offered Kromek a unique opportunity.

“Suddenly, we couldn't take liquids on aircrafts,” says Arnab.

“That was a time when the thinking in

“We weren't going to be very big just selling in Sedgefield. We had to look globally, but it was hard work as a tiny, tiny entity going to America and breaking in”

Kromek was, 'CZT may not work. We have to prove it in a product or an application and make sure everybody understands what we read in textbooks actually happens in real-life'.

"And we said, 'you know what, we can probably detect liquid without having to open a bottle’.

"We were about six or seven people, looking for an application to do this and we designed Europe's first liquid explosion detection scanner, which is still present in many airports across the world.

“We proved the technology worked on that platform.

“That world of CZT, that material we make, makes the difference.

“It provides digitisation and colour information and that real-time capability."

The Kromek team also started to develop hand-held radiation scanners and, in 2011, suddenly found they could be put to great and immediate use.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the biggest event of its kind since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986, triggered urgent calls to Sedgefield from the epicentre of the disaster.

Arnab, a deputy Lord Lieutenant, says: "We'd sold a couple in Japan and had just started distributing there when the disaster happened on March 11, 2011.

“They came on immediately and said, 'how many detectors can you make?'

“Ours was the first detector to be taken into the reactor because it was so small.

"The radiation dose was so high you had to cover the detectors in lead, otherwise the data was saturated.

“It managed to get a very accurate spectroscopy, and that's how they figured there was a meltdown.

"I was in Japan probably 20 times over three years, and we developed a portfolio of products for the civil nuclear market, including ones now used in every EDF power station – all designed because of that incident at Fukushima.”

As Arnab acknowledges, the Kromek journey has been incredible since it acquired EV Products in Pennsylvania ten years ago, with its move to a new custom-designed facility matched by feats including an AIM launch.

There aren't enough pages in this magazine to cover the extraordinary advances Arnab and his team – now more than 170-strong, with more than half based at NETPark – have made over the last decade.

They incorporated the liquid explosive technology into baggage screening and created the world's smallest spectrometer, which detects radiation.

The company is presently working with Newcastle hospital and university bosses to enhance breast

screening technology and improve cancer detection rates with dense breast tissue, with Arnab chairing the region’s NHS Academic Health Science Network.

In June, the radiation detection equipment developed over the years in Sedgefield was used to protect Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at an awards ceremony in Germany.

And thanks to a long-term contract with the US Government and its myriad of security and defence departments and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it is used across the world.

Contracts and contacts with, in Arnab's words, “some very, very big players in the medical, security and defence sector”, in the US, Asia and UK, mean those transatlantic journeys have paid off.

He says: "We weren't going to be very big just selling in Sedgefield.

“We had to look globally, but it was hard work as a tiny, tiny entity going to America and breaking in.

"We now look at the business in two segments; advanced imaging, covering medical imaging and industrial inspection; and security screening, where the technology is based around CZT.

"We're the only commercial independent company in the world producing this class of material, which detects cancer early, as well as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

"If you have good diagnosis, you can treat a patient better and reduce overall cost of care.

“That's when better diagnostics comes in. That's where CZT comes in. That's where we play.

"Around the world, there are thousands of gamma probes with our products used by surgeons on a daily basis during lymph node removal operations.

"Our other piece is what we call CBRN detection –chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear detection – and we now provide the world's smallest, lightest, fastest and most effective radiation detectors.

"Our journey has evolved completely.

“To a certain extent, it has been event-driven; my life has been a set of opportunities and I've just grabbed all of them.

"After 15-plus years of very intense work, and a huge amount of investment, we're at that point of very fast commercialisation.

“The markets are ready, the products are mature, the adoption cycle has started and there's a combination of all different factors within that.

"There's a very solid platform of growth, and the trajectory is going to be very robust.

"We're right at the beginning of the next phase of our journey."

Dr

Keith Miller

4Congratulations on the business’ 45th anniversary. To what do you attribute its success, and are there any specific highlights which stand out in its growth journey?

I’m very humbled Miller – which I started when I was just 21 as a one-man mobile welding repair business – is now recognised as the largest manufacturer in the UK of earthmoving attachments, couplers and buckets, and one of the leading companies of its type worldwide.

I have a great sense of pride when arriving in many different countries and seeing Miller products hard at work on the end of an excavator.

Managed under family leadership alongside my brother Gary and sister Jacqueline for many years, and supported by family and friends in the early days, we established a culture at Miller of transparency and genuinely taking care of our people.

And this foundation has underpinned our success.

In 1986, we pioneered the first universal quick coupler with hydraulic technology that revolutionised the operations of excavators, significantly increasing safety, productivity and versatility.

Not only a gamechanger for the industry, it also provided a competitive advantage that propelled Miller into the global arena.

We now supply products in more than 50 countries, with global manufacturing facilities and distribution centres across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

As you say, Miller is an international business, complementing its Cramlington headquarters with sister sites in Australia, China, India and the US. Against such an expanding geographical presence, just how important are the firm’s North East roots?

I was born in the North East and building a business in this region – in a hub of manufacturing excellence – has always been very important to me.

We have a lot of talent here, and one of our greatest accomplishments has been creating thousands of jobs in the region and worldwide, both direct and indirect, in our global supply chain operations.

I consider myself lucky to have ascended to a privileged position alongside a devoted and extremely

talented senior management team.

Together, they are orchestrating a remarkable business venture fuelled by exceptional individuals, propelling the company's growth to new heights through professionalism and an environment that seamlessly blends work and fun, making it an extraordinary place.

In the last 12 months, we have grown our presence in new markets across the world and expanded to reach new territories, with everything supported by our North East headquarters, which we plan to grow.

Everything starts from digging a hole; whether extracting coal or iron ore, or moving earth for the building of new homes, fitting a water or gas pipeline or road construction.

And it is the specialist work tools designed and built by the Miller global team that plays an important part in making it all happen efficiently.

Thanks to its supplying of parts to industries including construction and civil engineering, the business sits at the heart of a building sector undergoing a significant sustainability revolution. How is the company factoring such change into its product portfolio and, looking at its own future, how is it digging the foundations for further decades of success?

Being at the forefront of innovation, using the latest technology to constantly develop and innovate, is vital in the sectors we operate.

We strive to be a leader in sustainability.

As such, for decades our product portfolio has been driven by developing solutions that offer safety, productivity and versatility efficiencies – and, as such, increase sustainability – for customers, whether they be fuel savings, maximising digging performance or decreasing machine repairs and maintenance costs.

We continue to invest heavily in research and development to enhance our product portfolio and partner with like-minded companies to push technological boundaries.

Equally important is our investment in people. Our people make us who we are, and our future success and global growth will be drawn from empowering them to pioneer change that matters.

Closing this month’s issue of North East Times Magazine, Keith Miller, chair at Cramlington-headquartered international earthmover bucket and coupler maker Miller, reflects on the firm’s 45th anniversary, its plans for future growth and its place within the global sustainability agenda.