Columnist

Why NE6 is the real Northern Powerhouse

It is only a couple of miles across, running through Byker, Walker, Walkergate, Heaton and St Anthony’s in the east end of Newcastle.

Yet within that small geography lies a remarkable story of engineering, innovation and enterprise that has helped shape industries across the world for more than two centuries.

The story begins before Charles Parsons.

In 1809, William Losh, Thomas Wilson and Thomas Bell established Walker Iron Works, producing rails, steam engines, boilers and ship plates as Tyneside industrialised.

Nearby, Walker Alkali Works became an important centre of chemical innovation, while John Mills, established in 1828, developed specialist valves and engineering products.

These businesses established something fundamental: engineering was not simply supporting industry here. Engineering was the industry.

Into that environment came Charles Parsons, who established his Heaton Works on Shields Road in 1889.

His steam turbine transformed electricity generation and marine propulsion. 

Turbinia demonstrated the potential of turbine-powered ships, while his turbo-generators helped establish technology that became fundamental to modern power stations.

Yet Parsons’ greatest legacy may be broader still: he helped create an environment in which specialist manufacturers, suppliers, engineers and researchers could develop alongside one another.

That capability was reinforced by the wider marine and shipbuilding economy of the Tyne.

Swan Hunter’s yards were in Wallsend, but the engineering, manufacturing and skilled workforce that supported them extended through Walker, Byker and the surrounding communities.

My step-grandmother worked for Swan Hunter, so shipbuilding was part of my family story long before I moved to Newcastle

As traditional industries changed, the knowledge did not simply disappear. It evolved.

Marine engineering and manufacturing skills found new applications in offshore and subsea industries.

Businesses such as SMD, The Engineering Business, Royston and Shepherd Offshore developed sophisticated technologies for international markets.

Wellstream’s Walker Riverside base made flexible pipe technology for the global offshore energy industry.

British Engines continually diversified from its Newcastle roots into marine, offshore, subsea, aerospace, defence and renewable energy markets.

Siemens Energy still operates from the C.A. Parsons Works on Shields Road, linking today’s energy technology directly to the site where Parsons developed his turbine more than 130 years ago.

I saw much of this evolution first-hand.

I moved to NE6 in my early 20s and have lived in the area for more than 30 years.

I have represented Byker for more than two decades, served as leader of Newcastle City Council and spent much of my working life in regional development and inward investment.

Working with Nick Brown MP in the 1990s, I was involved in the Save Our Swans campaign.

Later, through economic development work, I travelled with NE6 businesses to trade fairs in Aberdeen, Stavanger and Houston.

Standing alongside those businesses internationally changed my perspective.

From Newcastle, they could look like individual companies.

In Stavanger or Houston, though, it was much clearer they were part of a concentration of specialist knowledge, skills, supply chains and engineering capability with a global reputation.

That is why I believe NE6 is the real Northern Powerhouse.

We have spent years describing the Northern Powerhouse as an idea: bringing together businesses, universities, research, skills and investment to compete internationally.

In NE6, those ingredients are not theoretical; they exist within a few square miles and have been connected across generations.

There is something particularly powerful about what is happening now. At the C.A. Parsons Works, GeoPura – recently acquired by Ballard Power Systems – is developing hydrogen power technology alongside Siemens Energy.

The site famous for the steam turbine is now helping develop technology for a very different energy future.

In NE6, that transmission is about much more than electricity.

It is the transmission of knowledge, skills, engineering experience, relationships and confidence from one generation to the next.

That is what makes this story different from a traditional industrial heritage story.

NE6 has not simply preserved its past; it has repeatedly adapted what it knows to new markets and new technologies.

And that is why we should tell the story much more confidently.

NE6 should be part of how Newcastle presents itself to the world: in our city marketing, investment proposition, trade missions and international exhibitions.

It connects Parsons with GeoPura, marine engineering with subsea technology, research with entrepreneurship and Newcastle’s industrial heritage with its future.

When I stood on those exhibition stands in Aberdeen, Stavanger and Houston, I saw something we do not always see from home: businesses from a tiny part of Newcastle with international reputations, global customers and global ambitions.

We should put that story on the world map.

NE6 is the real Northern Powerhouse.

And it is time we told the world.

Nick Kemp has more than 20 years' experience in economic strategy, business development, public affairs and strategic communications. A Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, his career spans senior roles in the public and private sectors, including leadership positions in public affairs and regional economic development advising FTSE 100 companies.

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