North East mayor Kim McGuinness travelled to Tokyo in November for a trade mission that included meetings with the likes of Nissan, Hitachi, and NSK
North East mayor Kim McGuinness and Port of Tyne CEO Matt Beeton sign a Memorandum of Understanding with representatives of Hitachi(Image: North East Combined Authority)
The North East mayor has defended the cost to taxpayers from her trade mission to Japan. Kim McGuinness travelled to Tokyo last month to meet with major firms like Hitachi and Nissan.
The cost of her trip has now been revealed as more than £16,000 and the merits of the journey to the Far East have been questioned by rival politicians. The mayor’s office confirmed, in response to a freedom of information request, that flights for the mayor and two North East Combined Authority (NECA) officers to Japan cost £9,536 and that £6,025 was spent on hotels between November 13 and 24.
A further £245 was spent on other transport costs, £300 on a translator, and £123 on food and drink. During her visit to the Japanese capital, the mayor announced the signing of two Memorandum of Understanding agreements with Hitachi, which has a train factory in Newton Aycliffe, in relation to zero-emission buses and proposed e-fuels hub at the Port of Tyne to help decarbonise shipping.
Ms McGuinness said there would be more trade missions to come, adding: “I’m not going to be the sort of mayor who sits behind a desk all day waiting to act – I’m proud to go out there and find the jobs and investment we need and to tell people how great this region is. The mayors of Manchester, London, West Yorkshire, Tees Valley and all over England are out there right now doing this, I won’t sit back and let them take North East jobs. That’s why Japan was such a success.
“Hitachi, a huge global corporation, said they want to invest more money and create more jobs in the North East, and they signed the deals to do just that. Then we took solar panel samples from Durham to Tokyo Gas, one of Japan’s biggest energy firms, and told them why Power Roll, a local firm in Durham, is the future. It was the same for offshore firms, for Nissan and more. We’re selling our North East to the world, no more being shy about it.”
NECA’s response to the FOI request from member of the public Jamie Halliday said that all flights were in either premium economy or economy class and confirmed that all costs were met from the combined authority’s funds, aside from a meal paid for by Hitachi at an estimated £100 per person value. The total cost of the trip was £16.229.92.
The visit almost involved meetings with the likes of Konami, North Standard, and automotive supplier NSK, which announced plans last month to close its NSK Bearing and AKS Precision Ball production sites in Peterlee. Andrew Husband, Reform UK’s leader of Durham County Council, said that the mayor’s meeting with NSK appeared to produce “absolutely nothing” and it “sounds like nothing is going to change” its Peterlee operation shutting.
Coun Husband added that no local agreement had yet been reached by the NECA cabinet on the mayor’s bus franchising promises. His deputy, Darren Grimes, called the Japan trip “posturing” and said that any manufacturer being asked to invest in the UK would be on a “hiding to nothing” due to national insurance contribution increases and energy costs.
Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Greg Stone told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that seeking to secure international investment was welcome, but “the key question is whether the outlay on her publicly funded expedition is matched by actual benefit”. He added: “Obviously it is important to promote the region internationally by engaging with major international companies with an existing stake in the North East and seeking to secure investment our region from others. The main achievements from her trip appear to be two goodwill agreements with Hitachi, who are already established in our region, committing to partnership on reducing carbon emissions for the region’s buses and at the Port of Tyne, and a promise of collaborative work on AI. These are of course positive and it is possible they may lead to future job creation, but there seems to have been few other announcements since her return.
“Given the not insignificant travel and carbon emission cost of her trip, Lib Dems in the North East hope that the Mayor will consider whether similar returns could have been secured from a meeting in Newton Aycliffe with representatives of Hitachi Europe.”
Ms McGuinness said: “This is the choice the North East has – a mayor who will go out there and bring back jobs, or Darren Grimes and Reform posturing on TikTok while saying it is not worth firms coming to the North East. It is disgraceful how they have put politics before jobs, but not surprising.”
AloJapan.com