The North East Local Enterprise Partnership has invested £4 million ($4.9 million) in the Port of Tyne’s Tyne Dock Enterprise Park, with the aim of positioning the port as a major offshore wind hub. The £4 million funding is in addition to the £2.1 million invested the Port of Tyne in the site.

Awarded through the Government’s Getting Building Fund, the grant funding has delivered major improvement to the site’s quayside, including quay strengthening, allowing multiple offshore wind vessels to berth alongside Tyne Dock Enterprise Park. It has also funded the creation of a new access road, linking Tyne Dock Enterprise Park to the Port of Tyne, and modern services to site.

The 7.1 hectares site, which has 550 metres of direct riverside frontage, is home to the newly opened Port of Tyne Operations and Maintenance base for Equinor, a hub for operations for the world’s largest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank.

Helen Golightly OBE, Chief Executive of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, said, “Tyne Dock Enterprise Park is playing a leading role in helping the North East attract investment and high quality employment in the offshore energy sector. It is also supporting the region’s drive to deliver net zero.

“As a strategic site for Dogger Bank, it provides a unique investment opportunity in the region; one that will bring significant growth to the North East’s advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors.

“Tyne Dock Enterprise Park will create hundreds of new jobs in South Tyneside as businesses move onto the site, as well supporting job creation across the region’s wider supply chain too.”

Fostering business growth

As an Enterprise Zone, Tyne Dock benefits from incentives designed to help businesses grow. The 21 Enterprise Zone sites that make up the wider North East Enterprise Zone programme were selected because of the opportunity they provide to attract investment from key sectors; supporting the aims of the North East Strategic Economic Plan to deliver 100,000 more and better jobs and create a more productive, competitive, resilient and inclusive North East economy.

Matt Beeton, Chief Executive of the Port of Tyne, said, “The modernisation of Tyne Dock – and the creation of Tyne Renewables Quay –provides a major wind hub to support the region’s role in the green industrial revolution taking place in the North Sea. Tyne Dock sits at the centre of a growing clean energy cluster that is supporting businesses build out and maintain the country’s major offshore wind farm development areas at Dogger Bank and Sofia.”

Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council, said: “South Tyneside is at the forefront of the UK’s offshore renewables industry and this investment will strengthen the Port’s operations, ensuring we can continue to innovate and drive forward growth at both regional and national level.

“Tyne Dock Enterprise is a key strategic site, housing world-class facilities like the Dogger Bank Operations and Maintenance Base, and presents a fantastic opportunity to boost job creation and bolster UK energy security.”

The Getting Building Fund was established early in the coronavirus pandemic to kick-start the economy, create jobs and help areas realise growth opportunities coming out of the pandemic. The North East Local Enterprise Partnership is managing £47 million awarded through the Getting Building Fund to support capital investment across the North East.