Member Article

Nicola Sturgeon in the North East: Here’s what we learned

Addressing over 200 North East England Chamber of Commerce members yesterday (6 November), Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the region to talk all things Brexit, devolution and crucially, transport.

Here’s our breakdown of the key things to take away from the visit and what they mean for North East businesses.

Strengthening ties between Scotland and the North East

The First Minister spoke of her personal affinity with the North East, having spent much of her youth visiting her grandmother who lived in Ryhope, just outside of Sunderland.

As well as mentioning enduring ties of family and friendship, Mrs Sturgeon paid tribute to the commonality between the North East and Scotland in terms of culture, education and economy.

Highlighting how our universities collaborate, the synergy between our offshore renewable energy operations and touching on the shared financial services connection we have, the First Minister’s main message was that regardless of Brexit or constitutional uncertainty Scotland wants to work with the North East and strengthen cross-border bonds. Moreover, she looks forward to “new opportunities and needs for further cooperation”.

Newcastle to Edinburgh by rail in less than an hour?

With transport dominating much of the speech, Mrs Sturgeon was steadfast in ambitions to speed up east and west coast rail links to reduce journey times between Scotland and the North East.

She announced that a new study had been commissioned by the Scottish government to improve rail journeys, with one finding suggesting that a third of journey times between Edinburgh to Newcastle could be decreased.

She told the audience: “One of the aims of this work is to help reduce the journey time between Edinburgh and Newcastle by a third to one hour.

“This will enhance the opportunities for trade and leisure travel between these great cities.It will also send a serious signal of intent that we are not just waiting for solutions to come from the South.”

Producing such technical analysis, said Mrs Sturgeon, proved “a signal of seriousness and intent” to proactively forge closer business links rather than just wait for HS2.

Devolution

While Mrs Sturgeon reaffirmed Scotland’s commitment to working with the North East, she conceded that there would be times where her country would try and use its competitive advantage.

However she spoke about common causes of Scotland and the North East in the need to influence the Government’s Industrial Strategy to meet the needs of more Northern businesses.

She commented: “Greater devolution would help give the North East a competitive edge and Scotland could be an ally for you.”

As long as increasing powers to the region don’t curtail those of Scotland, Mrs Sturgeon remains very much an advocate for greater North East autonomy.

Air Passenger Duty

The First Minister cited her Government’s decision to work towards the abolition of Air Passenger Duty as a potentially useful example of the benefits of devolution in practice.

However, in abolishing the tax North of the border many concerns have been raised that Newcastle Airport would be effectively lose competitive advantage with customers seeking cheaper flights at the likes of Edinburgh airport.

Newcastle Airport is therefore calling upon the Government to reduce APD by 25% across the whole country on 1 April 2019, and to announce this in the Budget on 22 November - a proposal which seemed to gain the approval of Mrs Sturgeon.

Graeme Mason, Planning & Corporate Affairs Director at Newcastle Airport, explained: There have been some challenges with the implementation of Air Departure Tax north of the border.

“Given this, and recognising our desire in the North East for a level playing field between England and Scotland, we have proposed a 25% cut in Air Passenger Duty in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1 April 2019, to demonstrate that we are all open for business in the post Brexit world.

“We were very encouraged by the support the First Minister offered for this proposal. It is now for the UK Government to set the agenda and announce reductions in Air Passenger Duty across the whole of the UK in the Budget on 22 November.”

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