What a great opportunity to address Conservative Party Conference about what we are doing in Stoke-on-Trent! Details of my contribution is below;
”Good afternoon conference.
Stoke-on-Trent is the UK’s 13th largest city - once famed for its pits and pots, decades of industrial decline had left a legacy that will not be unfamiliar to anyone with experience of post-industrial cities. However today Stoke-on-Trent is most definitely a city on the up.
A resurgent World Capital of Ceramics, one of the fastest growing economies in the UK and with record business growth, we are perfectly placed on a number of fronts to benefit from place-based industrial strategy.
Once a Labour stronghold, with 3 MPs and every seat in the council, today Stoke-on-Trent is run by a coalition of Independents and Conservatives - and in June we returned our first Conservative MP in over 80 years. I am proud to be the Deputy Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Today, our city has a new vision, built on our rich industrial heritage, creativity and enterprise. In 2015, our proposals for the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone received government endorsement - and today, I can report that each of the 6 sites in the Enterprise Zone has development either planned or occurring. We have secured over 1000 jobs and leveraged over £50m of investment into the area as a result.
The government’s modern industrial strategy builds in projects such as Ceramic Valley - traditional ceramics manufacturing remains strong in Stoke-on-Trent but it has developed into advanced materials. Toothpaste that fills your cavities as you brush, longer lasting orthopaedic joints, and the thermal protection systems on space shuttles all come from research and developments grounded in Stoke-on-Trent. Further investment in research can only strengthen that position to ensure ceramics and advanced materials becomes - and remains - a world-leading sector.
indeed, I am proud of the work we have already done in identifying how Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramic sectors can be one of the first place-based sector deals in the country. Working with Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP, Staffordshire Univerity, industry colleagues, Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and the British Ceramic Confederation, we are keen to push open the door and demonstrate how Stoke-on-Trent is a vibrant, modern city of the future.
Alongside development of one of the UK’s biggest low-carbon local heat networks, and of course our shortlisted bid to be UK City of a culture in 2021,I believe that Stoke-on-Trent is one of the most exciting cities in the UK today.
We have a new found confidence in our many parks and extensive canals network, alongside regeneration of our heritage buildings, and the benefits only a city so perfectly geographically located can bring. Working with out government, we are determined to capitalise in what made Stoke-on-Trent great, and deliver a renewed, revitalised and strengthened local economy, playing our part in a modern British Industrial Strategy.
Thank you.”