Nick Brown MP

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.
Moves [...]

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 English [...]

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 [...]

Last week the Prime Minister announced changes to the structure of the Government to better equip the country to face the world banking crisis. As the Minister for the North East, I am looking forward to the opportunity to put the interests of our region at the very heart of Government.
We must work together for the [...]

The big story of the past couple of weeks has been the turmoil in the global economy and as we have seen Britain is not immune to these problems.
In the North East we’ve already felt the effects with the difficulties at Northern Rock. The action which the Government took to address those difficulties was the [...]

A year has passed since Northern Rock hit the headlines with anxious depositors queuing outside its high street branches.
The conventional view of the mortgage market amongst the general public was that people deposited their money with banks and building societies and that the banks and building societies lent the money to other people as mortgages. [...]

The real tests that Governments face are not so unlike the tests that we all face as individuals in our own lives. The test is not that we should never make mistakes. We do. The test is how we go about putting things right when a mistake is made. This is the test that should [...]