North East England

This article is about the region. For the European constituency, see North East England (European Parliament constituency).

Template:Infobox England region North-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, part of North Yorkshire and Tees Valley.

The highest point in the region is Cross Fell, in the Pennines, at 893 metres (2,930 ft). The principal city is Newcastle Upon Tyne, Whilst the largest city in terms of population is Sunderland.

As well as its urban centres of Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside the region is also noted for the richness of its natural beauty. Northumberland National Park, the region's coastline, its section of the Pennines including Teesdale and Weardale provides evidence for this. It also has great historic importance, the evidence of which is seen in Northumberland's Castles and the two World Heritage Sites of Durham Cathedral and Hadrian's Wall. St. Peter's church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland along with St.Pauls in Jarrow also hold significant historical value. They have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site.

The shipbuilding industry that once dominated both Sunderland (once the largest shipbuilding town in the world) and Tyneside suffered a terrible decline during the second half of the twentieth century. Tyneside is now re-inventing itself as an international centre of art and culture and, through The Centre For Life, scientific research (especially in stem cell technology) and popular nightlife, in areas such as the Quayside or The Gate. After suffering economic decline during the last century, Sunderland is becoming an important area for quaternary industry, science and high technology. The economy of Teesside is largely based on its petrochemical industry. Northumberland and County Durham, both being largely rural, base much of its economy on farming and tourism.

In May 2005, the 'Passionate people. Passionate places.' regional image campaign was launched to promote North East England as a great place in which to work, study, visit and invest.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Map	Ceremonial county	Unitary authority	Metropolitan districts
	1. Northumberland
	Tyne and Wear *		2. Newcastle upon Tyne, 3. Gateshead, 4. North Tyneside, 5. South Tyneside, 6. Sunderland
	Durham	7. Durham
		8. Darlington
		9. Hartlepool
		10. Stockton-on-Tees (North of River Tees)
	North Yorkshire (part only)	10. Stockton-on-Tees (South of River Tees)
		11. Redcar and Cleveland
		12. Middlesbrough

Key: metropolitan county = *

History

The ancient history of this region was first recorded by Roman settlement, which includes construction of the most important Roman monument in Great Britain, Hadrian's Wall. This wall as well as the Stanegate also continue into Cumbria to the west, but the most significant stone battlements of the wall are in North East England, since the availability of stone was much greater on the Whin Sill or eastern reaches of the wall. Hadrian's Wall was constructed primarily to prevent small bands of raiders and unwanted immigrants from the north, rather than a fighting line for a major invasion.

The region was created in 1994 and was originally defined as Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Cleveland. As part of a reform of local government, Cleveland has since been abolished and several unitary districts created. The North East has been considered to be very religious especially Northumberland (home of the Lindisfarne Gospels), some of the scenery in the outlying villages is of considerable quality.

The region is now considered to consist of four distinct 'sub-regions':

• County Durham
• Northumberland
• Tyne and Wear
• Tees Valley (formerly Cleveland plus Darlington)

A referendum in 2004 as to whether a directly-elected regional assembly should be set up for North East England resulted in a decisive "no" vote.

In November 2004 people in the North East voted "no" in a referendum on whether to set up an elected regional assembly. The total number of people voting against the plans was 696,519 (78%), while 197,310 (22%) voted in favour.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admitted his plans for regional devolution had suffered an "emphatic defeat".

Conservative spokesman for the regions Bernard Jenkin said the vote would mean the end of plans for a north-east assembly. He told the BBC: "The whole idea of regional government has been blown out of the water by this vote".

Biodiversity

The region has a rich natural heritage, its diverse landscape includes maritime cliffs and extensive moorland containing a number of rare species of flora and fauna. Of particular importance are the saltmarshes of Lindisfarne, the Tees Estuary, the heaths, bogs and traditional upland hay meadows of the North Pennines, the distinctive Arctic-alpine flora of Upper Teesdale, the Farne Islands (which contain rare seabirds such as the Roseate Tern) and the magnesian limestone grasslands of East Durham - a habitat found nowhere else in the world. The North East also features woodland such as Kielder Forest, the largest man-made forest in Europe. This is located within Northumberland National Park and contains an important habitat for the endangered red squirrel. The region is the English stronghold of black grouse and contains 80-90% of the UK population of yellow marsh saxifrage. A recently created site for bird watching is Rainton Meadows.

Demographics

Although the North-East region has the lowest rate of HIV infection in the UK, it has the highest rate of heart attacks for men, and for lung cancer for women in England (just below Scotland), and the highest lung cancer rate for men in the UK. It has the joint highest birth rate for women under 20 in the UK (with Wales). It also has the highest youth unemployment (ages 16–24)) in the UK, and the second highest trade union membership for men (after Northern Ireland). For English students in higher education, those for the North East are most likely (72%) to pick a university in their home region; Scotland is the highest with 95% staying in their home country. The North East also has the highest proportion of Christians in the UK.

By region, the North East has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in England. Inside the region, the top-tier authority with the highest rate is Hartlepool, with Easington the council district with the highest rate. The top-tier authority with the lowest rate is Northumberland and the council district with the lowest rate is Tynedale in Northumberland.

Transport

The East Coast Main Line cuts through the region with stops at Newcastle, Durham and Darlington, providing fast connections to London and Edinburgh. The region is also served by the Durham Coast Line which connects Sunderland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough with the main line. The two main arterial carriageways, the A1 and the A19, mirror the railway trajectory. However, north of Morpeth, the A1 is single carriageway. There is the a ferry terminal at North Shields. DFDS operate two ferries a day to Amsterdam and, until 1 September 2008, one a day on the Stavanger - Haugesund - Bergen route. The two main airports are Newcastle Airport located north of the city near Ponteland and Durham Tees Valley Airport located east of Darlington. The Tyne and Wear Metro is a light rail network which serves the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, with stations in both Sunderland and Newcastle city centres, other towns and suburbs in the county, as well as at Newcastle Airport and other attractions such as the Stadium of Light, St James' Park and Gateshead International Stadium

Economy

The North-East region has the lowest GDP/capita in England, and second lowest in the United Kingdom only behind Wales. The economy for several decades was idiosyncratically predicated on ship building and coal mining; hence the phrase taking coals to Newcastle. County Durham and Northumberland are largely agricultural.

The former regional electricity company Northern Electric is now managed by CE Electric UK for distribution with NEDL based in Chester-le-Street.

Teesside

ICI is next to Wilton on a huge site between Eston and Redcar. Petroplus refine oil at the Port Clarence (former Teesside) Refinery. Teesport is the second busiest port in the country. Hartlepool has a nuclear power station and there is a gas turbine power station next door to ICI Wilton. Huntsman Tioxide has a large plant at Greatham that makes titanium dioxide, and its European headquarters are in Billingham. Aldous Huxley's visit to the former ICI plant in Billingham inspired him to write Brave New World. The Magnet Group is based in Darlington, also where Cummins design and build diesel engines. Saks, the national beauty salon company, is based in Darlington as is the large vehicle rental firm, Northgate. The Student Loans Company has a large office there. Corus Group makes steel on Teesside and makes pipes in Hartlepool.

Tyne & Wear

Swan Hunter until 2006 made ships in Wallsend, but still designs ships. Scottish & Newcastle was the largest UK-owned brewery until April 2008 when it was bought by Heineken and Carlsberg, and has the Newcastle Federation Brewery in Dunston, producing Newcastle Brown Ale. The government's Child benefit office is in Washington. Northern Rock, which became a bank in 1997, is based in Gosforth and there is the Newcastle Building Society. Findus UK is based in Longbenton. Nestlé have a chocolate factory in Fawdon. The MetroCentre, the largest shopping centre in Europe, is in Dunston. The previous Government National Insurance offices (demolished and replaced in 2000) in Longbenton had a 1 mile (1.6 km) long corridor. Siemens make steam turbines at the CA Parsons Works in South Heaton, Newcastle. Barratt Developments is in Benwell, Newcastle, and Bellway plc is in Seaton Burn in North Tyneside. Evans Halshaw, the car dealership, is based in Sunderland. The Sage Group, who make accounting software are based in Newcastle. Arriva, the large international transport company is based in Sunderland. Also in Sunderland, between North Hylton and Washington on an old airfield, is a car factory owned by Nissan UK and the outdoor clothing company, Berghaus, in Castletown.

Northumberland

Ashington has the Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter with the Lynemouth power station next door.

Durham

GlaxoSmithKline has a site at Barnard Castle that makes pharmaceuticals. KP Snacks (owned by United Biscuits) make Phileas Fogg snacks in Consett. Black & Decker used to have a large factory at Spennymoor but production was moved to the Czech Republic in 2002. Electrolux closed its cookers factory there in 2008, with production moving to Poland. Sunderland is well known for its call centres and this industry is rapidly expanding in the area.

Education

Secondary education

The North East education system consists of largely comprehensive schools but with a number of private and independent schools found in Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Stockton and Northumberland in particular. At GCSE level, the region performs similar to other largely urban areas although generally results are below the national average. Middlesbrough performs the worst with average results significantly below the national average for England. Newcastle and Sunderland improved significantly in 2007 from the previous year. Only North Tyneside performed above average, with Northumberland and Darlington not far off. St Thomas More RC High School in North Shields (a voluntary funded Roman Catholic specialist technology college) and Emmanuel City Technology College (a selective independent state school) are two of the best performing schools in Gateshead. Other well performing schools in the region include the Macmillan Academy in Middlesbrough, the Carmel RC Technology College, Hurworth School and Hummersknott School, all in Darlington.

At A-level, local education authorities in the north east are improving, but produce results substantially below other areas of the England. Sunderland performs the best, followed by Darlington which are both some way above the England average. Darlington is particularly noted for Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, which is one of the most highly rated colleges in England. Sunderland and its catholic schools all do reasonably well at A level, as most other catholic schools in the area. Close to the England average are also Redcar and Cleveland and Northumberland. South Tyneside is consistently the worst performing LEAs at A-level in the region. Middlesbrough performs much better at A level than GCSE, and conversely North Tyneside performs relatively worse at A level for an LEA that performs so well at GCSE. All Northumberland have a sixth-form along with a three-tier system of education. Many schools in the area, especially Teesside do not have a sixth form.

The independent and private schools in the area perform highly. Central Newcastle High School and Royal Grammar School, Newcastle were both named in the top 100 independent schools nationally in 2006. The private schools out-perform the state schools in the urban areas.

Tertiary education

At the higher education level the North East contains a number of internationally acclaimed universities. These include Durham University, the third oldest university in England; Newcastle University, a member of the Russell Group, and the newer universities of Northumbria University, University of Sunderland and the University of Teesside.

Local media

Local media include:

• Regional television comes the BBC North East and Cumbria region, which has the regional evening Look North programme from Spital Tongues in Newcastle. The ITV region, Tyne Tees Television, has the evening programme North East Tonight from Gateshead.
• BBC Radios Newcastle and Tees
• Commercial radio stations such as: Metro Radio (Newcastle), 100-102 Century Radio (Gateshead), Galaxy North East (Wallsend), TFM Radio (Thornaby-on-Tees), Alpha 103.2 (Darlington), Sun FM (Sunderland), Durham FM and 97.5 Smooth Radio. Rock Radio broadcasts on DAB.
• Community radio stations also operate in the area such as: NE1 FM (Newcastle), Tynedale FM (Tynedale, Northumberland}.
• Local regional newspapers are the Evening Chronicle (Newcastle) , Sunderland Echo (Sunderland), The Journal (Newcastle), Evening Gazette, Shields Gazette (South Shields), Hartlepool Mail, The Northern Echo (Darlington) and the Darlington and Stockton Times.
• New media company Great North News Services (Newcastle upon Tyne).

External links

• Government Office for the North East official site
• North East Regional Assembly
• One NorthEast - Regional Development Agency
• The Official Visitor Site for North East England
• The Official Visitor Site for Northumberland
• North East England Organisation
• The Myers Project
• The North East Biodiversity Forum
• The North East Group of the Botanical Society of the British Isles
• Enterprise Europe Network - innovation and business support for businesses based in North East England