A top Labour minister has predicted a “positive future” for a pivotal North East development site earmarked for a huge conference centre and arena.
Plans have been in the works for years to bring a “world class” events and leisure complex on the Gateshead Quayside, which would be known as The Sage.
But spiralling costs have put the regeneration proposals in doubt, with building work yet to start on a prime riverside plot between the Glasshouse music centre and Baltic art gallery.
After North East mayor Kim McGuinness said last week that she was “confident” that the development would come forward, Sunderland-born business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has added his backing to the project.
A study has been undertaken this year, funded by the North East Combined Authority, to determine what market demand there is for the scheme and what scale of work is now financially viable.
Speaking on a visit to Gateshead’s Ikea store last Friday, Mr Reynolds said: “I’m familiar with this as the business secretary and someone from the North East. I have talked to Kim McGuinness, the mayor, about this. It is not any state body, or council body behind the delay on this and I know they are working at pace on a solution.
“It is a great site and an asset, and could be something that contributes significantly to the North East economy. But I understand there is a lot of work going on to resolve the issues around it and I think people should be able to look forward to a positive future on that site, though I know they will be frustrated.”
Building work was meant to start in autumn 2023 on the proposed 12,500-seat arena and an international grade convention centre on the south banks of the River Tyne, which would act as a replacement for Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.
In January 2023, it was stated that the estimated cost of the development had jumped from an original £260 million to more than £350 million – a figure that is thought to have risen again since.
The cost increases have been blamed on factors including Covid-19, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and inflation hitting the construction industry.
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said earlier this year that the funding gap for the scheme was “less than £100 million”, while Ms McGuinness told the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week that the Gateshead Quays plot remains “pretty much the best place in the country” for a new arena to be built.
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