Introduction: a portrait of the North East

This chapter introduces the North East of England: its people, industries, how it is governed, how it compares to other regions and its future outlook. Before this account, the origin of the idea of the North East is considered, bearing in mind that, at least in England, regions are both historically recent and fragile entities, their integrity challenged by a raft of devolution initiatives at sub- and supra-regional level. This sets the scene for the next section, a thumbnail portrait of the North East's geography, industry, heritage and culture. The section further explores the challenges of deindustrialisation and of governance and economic restructuring. A final section explores how the North East compares with similar regions in England and Europe. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of what the future may hold for the region.

The idea of a North East region

Although it may seem to have always been with us, the idea of a North East region is a relatively new one. Soon after its emergence as a nation, England was split up into counties for the purpose of governance, a division that is reflected in today's local government structure. Although regional terms such as ‘The North’ were in common usage, they were generally ill defined and subject to interpretation. The North East only began to be viewed separately from the North West during the mid-18th to early 19th century (Green and Pollard, 2007: 12–20), at which point academic interpretation, industrial specialisation and, mainly as a consequence of this, political interests clustered around the distinctive characteristics of the area, in particular, the varied commerce and industry based on the ready supply of energy from the Great Northern Coalfield. The recognition of a North East region in England has subsequently waxed and waned, along with periodic attempts to address regional economic problems and create regional governance that have met with only temporary or partial success (Elcock, 2014). For this reason, studies and detailed analysis at the North East region level, though relating to a wide historical period, date mainly to the recent period of regional governance (1994–2010/12), with a number of notable exceptions outside of this period (for example, McCord, 1979; Jackson, 2019).