| John Appleby | Lib Dem Website @JohnApplebyLD |
| Jamie Driscoll | Labour Website @MayorJD4 |
| Charlie Hoult | Conservative Website @votehoult |
| Hugh Jackson | UKIP Website @UkipntMayor |
| John McCabe | Independent Website @McCabe4Mayor |
We’ve categorised their policies into Economic Development, Skills, Housing and Regeneration and Transport.
Tick the ones you most agree with to give yourself a reference when you look back.
Information is taken from candidates own websites. If candidates feel misrepresented, we welcome corrections.
Economic Development Policies
| John Appleby | • Work with universities, organisations, the Local Enterprise Partnership, and both large and smaller industries to develop employment and green investment opportunities. • Support greater uptake of renewables and oppose increased use of fossil fuels and new opencast mining; emphasise reduction, reuse and recycling ahead of incineration and landfill. • Prioritise commercialisation of innovation and new technologies, products, and processes. • Ensure a successful private sector for sustainable growth, secure jobs, and thriving public services. | |
| Jamie Driscoll | • Level the playing field for small businesses to win public sector work. • Support worker-owned businesses. • Set up a People’s Bank to invest in local businesses. • Create a community owned green energy company. • Create an innovation hub to support the low-carbon economy. • Provide high speed broadband, office and workshop space. | |
| Charlie Hoult | • Work with business and government to create new jobs. • Replicate the success of Cobalt Business Park in places such as Hexham, Ashington, Berwick and the city centre. | |
| John McCabe | • Create an economy in which employers can grow their businesses and create jobs 10,000 new jobs and where people of all ages, genders and ethnic background can use their talent to the maximum. • Ensure every pound of the £100m investment fund is spent on closing the economic gap that exists between North of Tyne and other regions of the UK. • Establish a new inward investment service to collaborate with private and public sector to attract new foreign direct investment into the North of Tyne. • Play to our region’s economic strengths such as digital and tech, life sciences, offshore energy and advanced manufacturing and adopt a sector-specific approach to attracting inward investment. • Work with existing and potential exporters to support their access to international markets. • Anyone starting a business will have access to an experienced mentor who can provide guidance and support in the critical early stages. • Promote North of Tyne as the ideal place for London-based professional services firms to relocate their office staff. • Push for the major Government offices to be front of the queue when the public sector is testing new technologies, working with local businesses to help them benefit | |
| Hugh Jackson | • Make this area the epicentre of engineering and manufacturing excellence for the 21st century • Boosting and investing in our fishing industry, from the Tyne to the Tweed • Taking advantage of Brexit, stimulating ship building on the Tyne and Coquet |
Skills Policies
| Charlie Hoult | • Turbocharge skills and education. • Bidding for the National leadership college for digital skills for the civil services. | |
| Jamie Driscoll | • Run training on setting up community projects and co-operatives. • Work with industry, schools, colleges and universities to provide careers advice. • Provide world-class environmental education. | |
| John Appleby | • Prioritise reduction of under-attainment for all, including the attainment gap for boys. • Support the development and implementation of a Progress 8 strategy to improve progress for all, along with more effective implementation of Pupil Premium funding in the region. • Work to reverse the recent decline in apprenticeship take-ups to meet current and future skills needs, including further development of the new degree apprenticeship scheme and encouraging firms to draw down their share of the training levy for vocational skills. | |
| John McCabe | • Build a high quality, inclusive education system which enables talent to flourish and allows all of our people to reach their full potential. • People to have the skills and support they need to reach their full potential. All children learning computer coding in primary school. • Every school will have access to a specialist mental health counsellor • Computer coding will be taught in every primary school and as children move through the system, • Those with a particular interest or talent for computer sciences will receive mentoring and a high standard of work experience • Establish a Mayoral Commission on Opportunity. This will examine all aspects of diversity, equality, social mobility and mental health | |
| Hugh Jackson | • Encouraging industries in the area to provide design, training and manufacturing • A wide, deep and varied 19- plus training scheme to the highest standards |
Housing and Regeneration Policies
| John Appleby | • Seek to ensure local plans deliver a suitable balance of family, affordable, and specialist housing. • Support greater local authority borrowing to finance new social housing construction. • Lead the introduction of a North East Brownfield Fund to reduce greenfield requirements. • Encourage more local consultation over use of New Homes Bonus and Section 106 funding for infrastructure and community facilities. • Support adoption of good ideas such as community land trusts (with more local say), single plot affordable homes to sustain smaller villages, and restoration of the zero-carbon standard for new homes | |
| Jamie Driscoll | • Build co-operative social housing that can’t be privatised. • Build affordable homes for sale with proper local amenities. • Constructed to high eco-friendly standards with built-in solar panels. | |
| Charlie Hoult | • Invest in homes and communities • Work with partners like Home Group who are pushing the boundaries on smart homes and green technology • Work with the Borderlands Partnership, £345m to tackle rural challenges • Work with the right partners on town centre vibrancy and homes for specialist needs | |
| John McCabe | • Focus on preventing anyone from North of Tyne who wants to stay in their community from having to move to get on the housing ladder. • A comprehensive first-time buyer strategy to ensure a supply of suitable homes is delivered across the area. • Work with social landlords on innovative approaches to rent to buy, provide access to financial advice and work with the finance sector to develop a more responsive approach to housing finance. • Environmentally sustainable and affordable houses to run, with far greater numbers of new homes, including social housing,built with features such as solar panels already installed • Focus on rural fibre broadband and find areas where we can pioneer 5G | |
| Hugh Jackson | • Awaiting update |
Transport Policies
| Charlie Hoult | • Instead of an unproven pollution tax, a co-ordinated green transport approach that connects rail, buses, with a comprehensive approach on electric vehicles, congestion, cycling and public transport. • Push for £80m to upgrade Metro stations. • The introduction of an Oyster-type Connect card, working across different transports would encourage more people to use public transport. • Support Northumberland County Council’s £3.45m investment to plan for passenger trains on the Ashington/Blyth/Newcastle line. • Triple lane the A1 Western Bypass stretch from the Tyne Bride to Seaton Burn. • Increase electric vehicle charging points and support a scrappage scheme that incentivises people to swap to greener vehicles. • ‘Go Dutch’ by increasing number of journeys made by bike from 2% to 10% – by increasing cycle lanes for wellbeing and to cut car traffic. • Fix connectivity issues between Newcastle and North Tyneside to up our game across the North of Tyne region. | |
| Jamie Driscoll | • Improve bus and rail services including joint ticketing | |
| John Appleby | • Prioritise greater coordination of transport, and promote a shift towards public transport, especially low emission and electric vehicles, and encouragement of car clubs that reduce use of resources and parking. • Lead a Mayoral Commission on air quality, congestion, and public transport across the North of Tyne area. • Step up lobbying of Government on improvements to the A1 northwards and A69 westwards. • Support the modernisation of the East Coast Main Line, the re-opening of the Northumberland railway line to create business and employment opportunities, Metro extension and light rail. • Support improved public transport provision for rural communities. | |
| John McCabe | • Make the most of our vibrant city, our proud local communities, and our wonderful coast and countryside, by connecting them better and preserving what makes them unique • Invest in public transport, parking facilities and extended cycle routes, to ensure better access to town centres, enabling more people to shop at our fantastic range of independent retailers • Secure commitments to upgrade the East Coast Main Line before the development of a new HS2 line • Collaborate across the private and public sectors to make a case to government for game-changing investment in public transport • Make North of Tyne the premier destination in the UK for cycling, by creating new, safer routes connecting our towns and countryside | |
| Hugh Jackson | • Linking businesses & commuters in urban & rural places with the use of ‘trackless’ trams |