Thursday 25-01-2024 - 12:00

Teesside’s rise as the 'Silicon Valley' of the green industrial revolution must not repeat past mistakes

 

Teesside’s Industrial Transition

Teesside is, at its heart, an industrial place. In the early 1800s, Middlesbrough did not exist. Yet by the end of the century, the town and the region had established itself as a national hub of industry. The region’s landscape became scarred with landmarks of economic power; mines, steelworks and later, chemical works. So entwined has this industrial identity become, the nickname ‘Smoggies’, given to Teessiders by Sunderland football fans travelling south past the Teesside industries for away games, has stuck and even been embraced.

Since the late 20^th century, Teesside has been going through a transition. The dramatic demolition of Redcar Steelworks at Teesworks captures this transition perfectly. Following years of discard and dereliction since its closure in 2015, the works were blown to smithereens over the course of two years, with one blast using 1.6 tonnes of explosives.[1] As the dust and rubble settled, with it lay one of the most well recognised industrial landmarks of the region.

The demolition was ‘bittersweet’.[2] For all the dramatics, the land was being cleared for a new future, a bright future for Teesside according to the local authority’s mayor, Ben Houchen. ‘While we remember our past…we’re continuing to clear the way to bring more cleaner, safer and healthier industries of tomorrow’.[3]

 

The twisted remains of the Redcar blastfurnace, Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images/The Telegraph

 

 

Net Zero and Climate Action on Teesside

These ‘cleaner, safer and healthier’ industries are those that will help the country reach Net Zero by 2050. The drive for Net Zero is not just desirable but necessary. Teesside and the Tees Valley are leading the way.

Projects in the region include Wilton International’s biomass power plant, carbon capture facilities that will capture CO2 and use a pipeline to store the emissions deep underground, and Teesside wind farm that is now synonymous with Redcar’s seafront. A move to hydrogen to heat homes and buildings has been proposed, including the UK’s first hydrogen transport hub and a £16 million Hydrogen Innovation Campus. Investment and development into a new offshore wind quay has been forthcoming. Teesworks, and the associated Teesside Freeport, is crucial for the transition to renewable energy in the region.[4]

In Ben Houchen’s words, ‘Teesside will be associated with net zero in the same way Silicon Valley is associated with IT and social media’.[5]

 

Why are the stakes so high? Historical Injustice and Transition

This industrial transition is not the first significant change the area has endured. The move away from traditional manufacturing in the post war era, which started gradually, took a disturbing turn in the 1980s. Deindustrialisation on Teesside manifested itself through the steel and chemical industries. Once juggernauts in the area, the 1980s saw over 20,000 job losses in steel and 15,000 in chemicals. Unemployment in Cleveland exceeded 20 percent.[6]

 

As industrial chaos took hold, the very social fabric of the region began to change. Many struggled to find work, and as a result suffered from a lost sense of purpose. The idea of community started to break down as stable social networks became strained, and many young people struggled to cope with their dwindling prospects. Even those that could obtain work found a type of work that was very different in nature. Middlesbrough was at the centre of an economic shift from unionised, secure manufacturing-based employment to a precarious labour market typified by service sector industries such as call centres.[7]

 

Attempts to negate the tumultuous impact of Teesside’s industrial transition fell to the centrally funded but regionally active Teesside Development Corporation. Landmark developments included the out-of-town retail centre Teesside Park and a new business hub at Teesdale however little attention was paid to creating long term stable employment for those who had suffered the worst from Teesside’s transition to the post-industrial. Moreover, in 2002 the National Audit Office found that the corporation had squandered in excess of £40 million, leading to accusations of mismanagement, secret dealings, broken rules and cut-price land sales.[8] 

 

In short, it was brutal. It illustrated that economic transition needs to be just, fair, and transparent.

 

Is History Repeating Itself?

If the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial was particularly disruptive, there are high hopes for the transition from the post-industrial to the green economy -  particularly on Teesside whereby green growth has been taunted as a potential solution to decades of ‘deprivation and disappointment’.[9] Teesside’s labour market, uniquely placed as a former hub of heavy industry, is advertised by local government to private sector investors as possessing a manufacturing skillset that green industry will require.[10] Industrial jobs for industrial people, so to speak.

 

The responsibility of attracting green energy projects to the region has fallen to a mayoral regeneration body; the South Tees Development Corporation. However, in its short 7-year history the body has come under intense criticism. Although a report in 2023 detailed that Teesside was a ‘hotspot’ for green industries with thousands of new green jobs, another found that Middlesbrough suffers from the third most destitution of any local authority in the country.[11] Therein lies a worry that those communities that suffered the most from deindustrialisation may not be those who benefit from the transition to the green economy.

 

The Corporation’s regeneration strategies have faced criticism wider than the economic. The regeneration process has fostered a sense of neglect for the built environment and region’s industrial heritage. The Dorman Long tower, a brutalist former coal bunker for the steelworks that had dominated the Teesside landscape for almost seventy years, was granted listed status in September 2021 to prevent its demolition. Initial plans for the structure had included repairs and even its incorporation into a heritage walk. However, Nadine Dorris, then Culture Secretary, revoked the listing on the basis that it did not merit any such special status. The hefty price to restore the building was not deemed worth it. Despite a backlash, the tower was demolished.

 

The Dorman Long Tower prior to demolition on the Teessworks site, Photograph: Alastair Smith/BBC News

 

For while the region’s industrial heritage is mobilised to attract private sector investment, the destruction of one of the region’s most poignant industrial landmarks has forced the community to once again confront the sense of loss that has come with economic transition.

More recently, the regeneration of the former steelworks site has been hit with a corruption scandal. Profits in excess of £50 million for the site has led to questions surrounding the South Tees Development Corporation’s selling of the land at a reported £1 per acre. It is hardly surprising that the memory of the Teesside Development Corporation looms over the affair, giving the impression that ‘history is repeating itself’.[12]

 

Conclusion: A Just Transition for Teesside

Teesport and Teesworks are crucial in the region’s commitment to Net Zero. However, the quest for carbon neutrality must not be achieved in an unnecessarily disruptive or unjust manner.

Ben Houchen is right. The Tees Valley and Teesside have much potential. However, at this time of economic, environmental, and cultural change, the question cannot only be how to transition to a decarbonised economy. We need to ask; how do we transition to a decarbonised economy in a just and fair manner that ensures communities are not left behind.