Why North Tyneside?
There are lots of reasons why North Tyneside is the perfect place to base a business. Here are just a few:
WORLD-CLASS PREMISES
From office places to industrial spaces, we’re home to market-leading, modern, flexible and affordable business hubs. The UK’s largest office park and a business park offering one of the UK’s most attractive location packages are both in North Tyneside.
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WELL-CONNECTED
By air, sea or land, North Tyneside is a gateway to the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond. Key employment locations are located within 30 minutes of Newcastle International Airport, which regularly tops league tables as the best UK airport. The airport transports over five million passengers on an annual basis to over 80 destinations in 30 countries – including major European cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva. There are also six flights a day to London’s Heathrow Airport as well as direct flights to a range of other UK cities.
Easily accessible ferry and cruise terminals are on our doorstep. The Shields Ferry operates a regular 30- minute service, linking the north side of the river to the south in less than eight minutes. International connectivity is also supported by a range of ports, including the Port of Tyne – which was voted ‘Port of the Year 2014’.
We also offer an excellent, low-congestion road network, with ease of access to major trunk roads, the A19 and A1. And if you’re travelling by rail, our over-ground system, the Tyne and Wear Metro links directly to Newcastle’s Central Station which provides easy access to the East Coast mainline offering fast connections to major cities around the UK, including London and Edinburgh.
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SKILLS AND TRAINING
We know we have an abundance of skilled people in and around North Tyneside. And we are working hard to ensure that we can deliver more and more bright sparks – young people whose skill and qualifications are matched with the innovation and determination – to drive forward the businesses that locate here long into the future.
Many of our schools and colleges already offer bespoke training courses tailored to emerging business sectors and needs. A great example of this is the new Energy Academy, located next to the Swans Offshore Energy Park on the River Tyne. The Academy offers bespoke skills training to businesses in the renewables sector, ensuring North Tyneside remains home to the most highly-prized employees around.
Meanwhile our unique Learning Trust involves a collaboration of schools, employers and further and higher education institutions and works to improve education and training for young people. North Tyneside Council also offers help and support to recruit and train your workforce, including the recruitment of apprentices.
A COLLABORATIVE REGION
North Tyneside and the North East have deserved reputations for their tight-knit business communities.
Both are places where companies work hand-in-hand to support one another, and there is a collaborative spirit that spurs on regional economic growth. The area is home to the UK’s largest Chamber of Commerce; software and digital organisations like Software City and Dynamo; cluster networks like the North East Automotive Alliance, NOF Energy and NEPIC and a great many other groups that are set up to foster innovation and connect like-minded businesses. There are also significant funding pots available in the North East for companies to get up and running or scale up their businesses.
OUR TWO ENTERPRISE ZONE SITES AND BUSINESS PARKS
Two sites in North Tyneside have been granted Enterprise Zone status. The Swans Offshore Energy Park and the Port of Tyne North Estate are also part of the overall North East Low Carbon and Advanced Manufacturing Enterprise Zone. Cobalt Park is the UK’s largest office park and has restaurants, shops and cinemas on its doorstep. A total of 450 bus journeys pass through Cobalt each day. Meanwhile, Quorum Business Park’s cutting edge offices deliver flexibility and one of the most cost effective financial packages in the country. Together, the Enterprise Zones are expected to create more than 7,000 new jobs by 2022.
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A COMMITTED, LOYAL WORKFORCE
Our people are famed for their loyalty, adaptability, friendliness, and can-do attitude – Just ask brands like EE, DXC Technology, Convergys, Tesco Bank and Insurethebox who have located in North Tyneside to take advantage of the low attrition rates, motivated workforce and the famously happy staff who deliver fantastic service to their customers.
You will find staff you want to keep, and who want to stay with you, adding genuine value and knowledge to your business as it grows. And with almost one million residents living within a 30-minute commute, there is a vast pool of talented individuals to help you drive your business forward. One quarter of that talent pool is educated to degree level – and that impressive figure continues to rise. Once qualified, around two-thirds choose to stay in the area to pursue a career, meaning businesses can recruit from a fresh wave of talented graduates, year after year.
The North East has one of the most cost competitive workforces in the UK, offering companies an average 30% saving on staffing, skilled, or otherwise, compared to inner London, at the other end of the scale. Average salaries in the region are around £26,000, well below the UK average salary.
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
The region’s four universities, Newcastle, Northumbria, Durham and Sunderland are at the leading edge of research and development across a range of sectors including engineering, energy, applied science, design and medicine. All of the universities have close links with local businesses and industry.
Innovation Hubs linked to the universities bring together research and development activity, as well as spin-off companies and facilities. The School of Marine Science and Technology at Newcastle University carries out collaborative research with industrial partners from across Europe. At Durham University, the CeREES Centre for Geoenergy carries out research of direct relevance to industry in such fields as digital mapping, well site geology and drilling technologies.
Based on the north bank of the Tyne, a new £2.2million Energy Academy provides a centre of innovation, training and development for the energy sector. ORE Catapult, Tyne Subsea, the National Innovation Centre for Data and Sunderland’s FabLab are also among the wide range of R&D facilities that businesses in the area can tap into.
QUALITY OF LIFE
North Tyneside is a truly unique place, offering the perfect mix of rural, coastal and urban locations, where modern living meets history and heritage. Our award-winning coastline – with three Blue Flag beaches – is enjoyed all-year round by visitors including cyclists, walkers, day-trippers and surfers.
We have a wide range of first-class facilities for the whole family including state-of-the-art sports and leisure centres, golf courses, parks, live music venues, theatres and galleries. A busy events programme provides plenty of cultural entertainment, which attracts international artists to the area.
Living here is as affordable as it is enjoyable. The price to rent or buy property in the borough is around 50% lower than the national average. And we have a fantastic choice of homes to choose from, with high quality, new-build developments, including some stunning executive homes, as well as more traditional, period properties. If you choose to live and work here, you’ll also enjoy some of the shortest commuting distances in the UK.
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