Nick Brown MP

Nick Brown has welcomed today’s announcement of Government funding for a scheme to build the world’s biggest wind turbines  in Walker. The Department for Energy and Climate Change’s move to award a £4.4m grant to American green energy firm Clipper Windpower has been hailed as a key step in the rebirth of the shipyards on the banks of [...]

  Today’s announcements at Nissan are fantastic news for our region. The company has confirmed plans to make Sunderland its European hub for making batteries for electric vehicles. This will mean 350 jobs created at the plant, and the promise of more as the technology gets going. Nick visited Nissan in January when things were [...]

Nick Brown yesterday spoke of his confidence in a bid for thousands of new jobs for the Region. Japanese giant Hitachi is lining up Gateshead as a possible location for a factory to assemble a new generation of high-speed trains. Nick Brown met representatives of the company in Downing Street this week. He said “It [...]

As part of the Government’s drive for greater regional accountability, a Regional Select Committee of MPs for the North East has recently been established. As part of their first meeting in Gateshead today, they quizzed regional business leaders on the Government’s response to the economic downturn. There was strong support for Nick’s work as Regional [...]

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage. It’s an achievement of which this Government can be proud. Last week it rose again, to £5.80 an hour. Nearly a million people will benefit from this increase when it comes into effect in October, including 55,000 in the North East. [...]

The Budget today offers real help to people now. On Tyneside we remember all too well the devastating job-losses caused by the do-nothing approach to the recession of the 1980s. The Government is determined to do all it can to avoid a return to those days. That means offering people assistance if they are facing [...]

The Government has been taking action to get the UK through the economic downturn. Moves to shore up the banking sector have meant no one has lost their savings from a British bank. The VAT cut and Tax Credit increases in the autumn put money in people’s pockets during difficult times. And the focus on [...]

The following is Nick Brown’s introduction to the Smith Institute publication “Advancing Opportunity in the Regions: The Future of the North East”, which was published today.  The complete publication can be found here. During the last two decades, no English region has done more to help itself than the North East. Comparative studies of the [...]

We know that recessionary forces are at work in the economy. Those who say that the major effect will be felt in the South East of England and that the North of England will be relatively unaffected are just wrong. The impact of the worldwide economic slowdown has been felt in our region. And in [...]

WHEN WE MET A YEAR A GO IN THE LEGEND’S ROOM AT MIDDLESBROUGH FOOTBALL CLUB, I USED THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE CONFERENCE TO SET OUT MY AIMS AND AMBITIONS AS THE NEW MINISTER FOR THE NORTH EAST AND TO SAY WHAT I HAD ALREADY DONE. WHAT I WANT TO DO TODAY IS TO REPORT BACK [...]