Mayor of North candidates put green economy and just transition at heart of their plans

CLIMATE change campaigner Jamie Driscoll led his fellow Mayor of the North candidates in saying green policies would be at the heart of his agenda, should he be elected.

The current Mayor of North Tyne was speaking at hustings organised by Friends of the Earth in Alnwick, held specifically to explore candidates’ views on environmental and rural issues.

Driscoll pointed out that making campaign pledges was easy for politicians to do but as Mayor of North Tyne he had actually delivered on his promises when it came to climate commitments.

The former Labour politician, now standing as an independent candidate in the May elections for the Mayor of the North role, was one of four candidates highlighting their green credentials in front of an attentive audience.

Labour candidate Kim McGuinness, Conservative, Guy Renner-Thompson and the Liberal Democrats’ Dr Aidan King sat alongside Driscoll on a panel chaired by Friends of the Earth’s  Mike Powell.

All of the candidates on the night said they planned to put the green economy at the forefront of their plans if elected although they had different approaches.

Driscoll pointed out he had declared a climate emergency on his first day in office and devoted 40% of his budget to the issue.

He had created hundreds of good green jobs, cleared brownfield land and built eco-friendly houses on them, as well as offsetting the North Tyne combined authority’s carbon footprint.

“This is personal for me,” he said. “My eldest son turned 18 today and I refuse to condemn him and his generation to a planet that is beyond fixing.

“I keep my pledges,” he said. “Lots of people talk about getting to net zero, we’ve accomplished it.”

Driscoll had earlier criticised his former party, Labour, for rowing back on its green agenda, including the £28 billion a year pledged to tackle climate change.

But Labour candidate Kim McGuinness insisted Labour’s plans remained ambitious and she was seeking a major role for the mooted new national power company GB Energy in the region.

She also said she was seeking to restore the Leamside Line rail connection as part of an integrated transport system which would reduce carbon emissions.

“I’m having the conversation with Labour frontbenchers about making the North East the home of GB energy,” she revealed. “And I’ll look to supercharge those renewable industries locally to take advantage of those opportunities.

“I want to make these industries homegrown to the region because there’s groundbreaking research taking place at Durham University which says the whole of the North East can be powered by renewable energy.

“I would bring buses back under government control and integrate our public transport because we need a joined-up system.

“The Leamside Lane remains a Labour commitment as well as improving the Metro and we need to develop electric car infrastructure too.”

Liberal Democrat candidate, Dr Aidan King, outlined his ambition of building Britain’s biggest windfarm across Northumberland and Durham, something he said would help fund new infrastructure that the region needed – specifically, the Leamside Line and Metro.

Conservative candidate Guy Renner-Thompson highlighted his farming background and knowledge of the green agenda as part of his education.

He said a key focus for him would be on maximising food production across Durham and Northumberland and also supporting biodiversity net gain which he said was more important than onshore windfarms and tree planting.”

The meeting at St James’s URC Church Centre was well-attended, especially given the wet weather and heavy fog, with approaching 80 people in the venue and the room three-quarters full.

The hustings were carried out in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with the political rivals taking questions from the floor in a Question Time-style format.

Among the issues raised were regenerative farming, the future of young people in rural areas in the North East, the scandal of water companies’ failure to tackle sewage discharges and how to improve transport systems in an environmentally friendly way.

Concerns over housing and tourism in Northumberland were raised, with Driscoll again highlighting his successful track record when it came to brownfield land regeneration with developers told to deliver homes of high environmental standards.

Guy Renner-Thompson talked of the need to move tourists around the North East rather than having them focused in areas where their presence might cause damage. He had no objection to housebuilding but said it had to be in the right places and that biodiversity net gain had to be emphasised.

Kim McGuinness agreed with that, saying: “We have to change the way we approach this – we do not need more half-a-million pound houses being built on green fields. 

“There’s 60,000 people on waiting lists in the North East and it’s not good enough. 

“We need investment but the right kind of investment and those are the powers I’d be looking at if I was North East Mayor.”

She also called for the need to improve urban housing, both from an environmental viewpoint but also to reduce the need for travel.

The final question concerned the cost of the Mayor of the North East role being created in terms of what it might end up costing the general public to fund it.

Dr King pointed out that the North already had a combined authority Mayor in the shape of Driscoll and the Liberal Democrat joined with Guy Renner-Thompson in saying he would not be looking to tax people in the North East more and that all the funding would come from central government.

Kim McGuinness said she would be pushing for more money and power for the North East if she became new Mayor, suggesting the current devolution deal was not strong enough.

Driscoll claimed to have increased value for money by 60 per cent since becoming Mayor of North Tyne in 2019, saying: “You will never see a headline which says: ‘Mayor gets on with it and quietly does a good job’ but that’s what I’ve done.

“For every pound we’ve spent, we’ve returned £3 in taxes to the revenue.

“We now have the best-funded devolution deal in the country to come partially because I was part of a team which campaigned so hard to get it.

“We went down to the Treasury in London in 2020 and made the case so strongly – we had the approach that shy bairns get nowt – and we were successful and hopefully that role is going to give us great opportunities in the future to make a difference for the North East.” 

Asked what would be their primary focus should they become Mayor, Renner-Thompson highlighted the need for job creation and increased wages: “not just in the urban areas but the rural centres too, underpinned by better transport infrastructure.”

Kim McGuinness said: “It’s clear to me that our region can be the greenest region in the country if we get it right, across the board.

“We also need equal opportunity throughout the region, whether you live in an urban or rural environment, and part of that is needing to put ourselves on the international stage.”

Driscoll said everything was linked to the environment – transport, energy, education – all part of an ecosystem which needed to be brought together for best results.

But above all, it was about the need to do something positive to tackle climate change:: “I’m doing this because I can see the coming climate emergency and it frightens the hell out of me.” he reflected.

Dr King agreed saying “The climate crisis is going to define our lives for a long time to come and we need to sort out green energy in our region, build up investment and create warm, dry homes.

“We need to get all this done immediately.” 

Although Green Party candidate Andrew Gray missed the event with a cold, he sent a statement which said: “We need a just transition where the burden does not fall hardest on the most deprived or the most isolated communities. 

“Hence my number one priority – a mass home insulation programme – starting with the uninsulated walls and roof spaces within our social housing, moving on through other tenures and then harder-to-treat homes, building up the skilled workforce and green finance options as we go. 

“Everything else can follow from that – integrated local public transport, economically thriving villages and towns, place-based adult education and skills provision and local cultural engagement.”

Chair Mike Powell thanked the guests – especially Driscoll, for coming along on his son’s 18th birthday – and the audience for their wide range of questions.

“We’ve made a habit of holding hustings like these for recent elections in the North East,” he said.

“And we’re always grateful to the candidates for turning up and taking part, so that we can discuss rural issues and the environment.

“It’s important to remember that although it’s natural for people to put the focus on the big urban centres like Newcastle and Sunderland, Gateshead and Durham City, the fact is that the North East is also a very rural place – the county of Northumberland more than just about anywhere else in the country – and the concerns of people in rural areas must be taken into account.

“It is also timely to discuss what can be done in our region to contribute to tackling the climate emergency and how there are opportunities for our people and communities amid the challenges.”