About the Area

North East England The North East Region borders on Scotland to the north and Yorkshire and Humberside to the south. The Region has excellent routes of communication to the rest of the UK and wider Europe. By rail, it is served by the East Coast mainline. By road, the A1 is a major north south route and the A69 and A66 run east west. It is served by Newcastle and Teeside airports and has sea links through numerous ports including Sunderland and Seaham.

The Region was severely affected by the virtual demise of its deep mining coal industry. Each of the communities of the URBAN II Hetton and Murton Community Initiative relied on that industry for training, jobs and community infrastructure. The legacy of the collapse of the industry is poor health, low educational achievement and high rates of joblessness.

The challenge for the Partnership is to enable the residents of the initiative area to create and access employment, reach higher levels of educational attainment and improve their health. The Partnership must enable the communities to increase their capacity to participate in the planning of their own futures and contribute more to the economic development of the Region.