Minister for the North East
From 2007 to 2010, Nick Brown served as the North East’s first ever Regional Minister. It was an opportunity to put the North East, and East Newcastle, at the heart of Government thinking.
The job meant being the region’s representative within Government – making the case for job opportunities to be based in the area; making sure that local priorities are the guiding factor in Whitehall decision making on schools and housing; and making sure that welcome central decisions such as the Government’s drive to improve GP’s services are flexible enough to reflect the true wishes and needs of the people who’ll be using those services every day.
But it also meant being the Government’s representative within the region. Nick visited skills conferences, voluntary organisations, environmental groups, universities, and much more in between, to make the case for how Government policy can work for them, but also to make sure that where shortcomings are identified they are fed back in to Government.
Nick made his priority as Minister for the North East getting the region through the economic downturn. Nick worked side by side with the private sector and the trade unions to ensure that people are able to keep their jobs and, where that has not been possible, has worked hard with JobCentre Plus and other organisations to make sure people get back into work as soon as they can.
You can find a full list of news stories on Nick’s work as Regional Minister here.
And you can find a list of all Nick’s engagements as Regional Minister here.
