Interview with Cllr Glen Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council

Councillor Glen Sanderson has led Northumberland County Council since 2020. He’s been a County Councillor since 1989, providing him with years of experience in local government. Prior to becoming the leader of the council, he held a number of senior cabinet roles. He had responsibility for environmental and local services. As Leader, he’s really focused on driving economic growth, on improving infrastructure, ensuring strong service delivery alongside attracting investment and supporting communities across

Watch the full conversation on YouTube here.

Timestamps: 

01:18 Cllr Sanderson’s journey into local government
03:08 The Northumberland Line: a transformative project
05:09 Northumberland Line: Sustainability and tourism benefits
06:26 Northumberland Line: connectivity developments
08:53 Delivering ambitious visions
09:54 Investing in education: building super schools
11:17 Harnessing investment for local growth
13:40 Renewable energy and supporting job creation
16:32 Embracing modern industries and innovation
18:56 Collaborative governance in combined authorities
21:44 Navigating the transition to a combined authority
24:44 Future vision for Northumberland
28:08 Maintaining focus on immediate and long-term goals 

Could you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming a councillor? Why did you get into local politics, and how have you found the experience?

Thank you very much for having me to talk to you this morning. I would say that I got into it because of a road that was closed as part of a new development. I didn’t feel at the time that the local community in which I lived had been sufficiently told about this, and so I thought well, this is not very good, so I got in touch with the local council

I didn’t find the response incredibly warm the time so I thought I would like to try and do something about this so I put myself surprise really I managed to win the season and from then on apart from a break when I stood for Parliament which I didn’t win clearly I have been a councillor for quite a long time mostly in opposition which is frankly, compared to being in administration, being in opposition is not a lot of fun really. But we maintained a strong challenge to what was then a very strong Labour-run council. But by so doing, it built up within us a passion, a real passion to make a change, to do something different.

I really felt that there was a need to be a flash of lightning, if you like, in the way the council was running. So when we were lucky enough to be voted in, first time actually in, knows how many decades, as a Conservative administration, we didn’t have an overall majority, but we were enough to be able to work with colleagues to be able to get on with the programme that we want you to do.

So it all started with a road, but one of the things you’re best known for now is a railway. The Northumberland Line, I hear it’s recently surpassed one million passengers. It’s a pretty incredible thing. Can you tell us a bit about the Northumberland Line: where the idea came from, how it got delivered, and what impact you think it’s having?

This is a line that was very popular in the 20s, taking people to Newcastle and back to the coal fields in South East Northumberland. It was closed in 1964, and for many years, people kept saying we must open this line again for passengers, and it was the cost and the intricate work that was going to be needed to get this running again that was enough then to stop people from actually doing anything about it.

But then the previous government came up with a thing called Restoring Your Railways, and that offered good funding for exactly the kind of project that we wanted to deliver. 

So with that, we went ahead, and we had full cooperation of the government. Then we felt as an administration that it was absolutely the right thing to be spending our money on as well. Now, like all great adventures and all great projects, they all run over time, they all cost more money, they all cause sleepless nights and thicken the skin significantly.

It was amazing how many people said, ” What a rubbish thing, what a waste of money, it’ll never work.” Who now are taking the credit for it – but that’s politics. It did require a lot of dedication and commitment to make this work. We thought it would, but we didn’t have the assurance that it would be as successful as it has been. 

So we have now almost reached the 1.4 million passenger journeys in over a year, with fantastic customer satisfaction. In fact, it’s so popular that we are engaged with Northern Railway and also with the combined authority to get some more carriages because we simply can’t carry the people wanting to use it. 

Now that we’ve opened the final station in Bedlington, demand will rise even more. So that’s the first thing we’re doing. Then the second thing that we are doing is that at the moment, we want to keep the car parks free so that they are not full of cars every day. Those are cars that would probably be going into Newcastle and getting stuck in traffic jams, causing CO2 emissions. Actually this is a really good example of sustainable transport where you produce something that is reliable on time, efficient, inexpensive to use compared to other public transport systems and is doing the business for the people who using it, whether they’re going into Newcastle for leisure, for work, school and for people coming back from Newcastle and beyond, coming to the parts of Northumberland that is much less known.

Northumberland is very blessed in having wonderful coasts and wonderful castles and fabulous scenery, but it also has a sort of industrialised past bit in southeast Northumberland that actually is really interesting. So the station, for example, in Bedlington that we just opened, produced the rails for the first European rail systems and for George Stevenson’s rocket.

So it will bring more people in and we are already looking at how we might facilitate more tourism in that part of the world. I think we will do that.

Have you got any plans to extend the Northumberland Line or to add different other sort connectivity developments around it?

Yes, I do. There is every reason to extend this line to two different parts of Northumberland. It will be expensive, but we know that the demand is there. And so whether it’s in terms of the environment, whether it’s in terms of good integrated transport, whether it’s actually just pleasing local people and helping business, it is the right thing to do. I am in talks with the combined authority and the mayor about helping us fund this. And I’m really pleased to say that the mayor shares my ambition to see the line extended. 

I’m hoping my ambition now is to get the first planning application in by sort of 2028. We have also received, from the Combined Authority, a feasibility study lump of money of £450,000 to begin. So that’s fantastic news. So yes, we haven’t finished yet.

Going back to that initial ambition. If there were people watching this who are thinking, I’d love to do something like that, but we just couldn’t support that level of ambition, it’s too hard, it’s too difficult. What were the key elements to bringing people with you in that vision?

I think one of the key ones is the value of the corridor that the line has created in terms of housing and other developments. We managed to bring people with us because of that opportunity, and it’s there. If we do extend the line, it will bring more opportunities again. So that’s one thing. 

Also, I’m the only conservative on the cabinet at the combined authority, but despite that, we do get on well, and I get on well with the mayor. She has the spending power and the ambition that I have, and she gets it – the need to continue to build on what we’ve done. Also, the economic and social benefits are so compelling that the money spent is worthwhile. We wouldn’t have been able to do it if we hadn’t kept a tight ship in terms of finance.

We did, however, make the decision to increase our capital program by quite a lot, but only on things that are actually important. So, there was a Northumberland line, but we’re actually in Northumberland building three new super schools. We built one, and it’s finished, and it’s fantastic. We’re in the middle of the next one, and then we have another one up in Berwick that we’ll start soon. People would say, ” Well, why are you doing this? Surely it’s the Department of Education that should be doing this?” But actually, whilst we have continued to ask for some help in this from the government and I’ll continue that battle, it won’t help us build super schools. It’s around ensuring that this administration delivers things that are valuable for the future, so whether that’s the Northumberland line or super schools. That’s what we’re going to do.

I love that there’s a spreadsheet and a story involved. There are the sort of calculations around benefit and the economics, but there’s also a real story about the place and what it means to people. I think it feels like both of those elements have importance in getting something like this done.

It’s a bit like the new development that we’ve begun in the South East of Northumberland, where QTS and Blackstone are delivering a new £10bn data centre campus. That’s one of the largest developments that we’ve seen in Europe. The reason I think they came to us was that 10 years ago, we had the foresight to say let’s build, let’s create this huge area that has got power, that’s got water, that’s got connections. Let’s build it so that one day it will be the home of a super development. So, because we had that in place, that’s what attracted that centre. 

From that negotiation, we have got a new fund of £110m, which is our Northumberland Growth Fund. That money is already starting to come in. We’ve already got about £20m, and it will build up to £110m as the development goes on. But that money is going to be completely ring-fenced for business, jobs and opportunities anywhere in the county. So it’s not just the south-east of the county that’s going to see this development, but actually the whole county that will benefit. 

We’ve just taken a paper to Cabinet around managing this fund because what we don’t want to see is every member saying, “We need this in my patch, I want this”, or “You gave some money there, but you didn’t give it to me.” We are setting up a properly managed fund, which will be done correctly, and it’s a great opportunity. It’s great because we will be able to spend that. That’s really important money anywhere in the county.

That’s really interesting and important because one of the anxieties we sometimes hear from people around the inward investment you’re describing is, how do we make sure the benefits of that are felt by local communities and how do we make sure we have a capacity to manage them across the county or whatever area we’re talking about so they neither go out of area nor are confined to a particular bit of the area. I think that fund model provides you with levers to ensure the money is spent where you think it ought to be.

So we have this powerhouse, this kind of throbbing heart, if you like, in the South East Northumberland through renewable energy. are huge amounts of enthusiasm, motivation and brilliant thinking going on in the Port of Blyth, where 120 years ago was a hugely important exporting port for coal from the North East Coalfield. In fact, it was the largest coal-exporting port in Europe at one time. Then it fell into disuse when the boom was over. But it is now the hub of renewables, bringing in huge quantities of power from the turbines on Dogger Bank, etc. 

That goes into the grid and powers a huge amount of other energy. That is all happening in Blyth at the moment, which is really good too. But it’s bringing in jobs, and it’s our job to make sure that we facilitate that training, which is what we’re doing. We’ve also invested around £15m in a learning hub in Blyth. We’ve got a lot of money from the previous government for levelling up funds, which has gone there as well.

The big factor really is to make sure that we continue the investment right across the county. We are using money that we are creating from investment in the southeast in a whole range of different ways. I’m very pleased to say that we have a small business service that is delivering something like 800 new options and jobs in the rural areas. So they are just as important.

As you said before, Northumberland will be known to many people for its natural beauty and it’s also known as the centre of a historic industry. What you’re leaning into now is new industries, is modernity. Saying the tradition of Northumberland is a tradition of modernity and innovation, and embracing the new and driving new industries forward, and that’s what you’re really leaning into.

The really key industries that are coming in will fund the development elsewhere. We have to make sure that we do that in order to keep the pace going in our rural areas and our small villages as well. We’re actually lucky to be part of a fund called Borderlands, which, in a nutshell, is a brilliant piece of work between councils.

We have Cumbria, the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, and so on, who have an amount of money to spend on those kinds of developments that you wouldn’t normally see. For example, we’re using our Borderlands funding to fund a whisky distillery and a visitor centre in a place called Wooler, which is not in the middle of nowhere, but it’s not on the tourist trail per se. So that’s hugely important. We’re also building a new theatre in Berwick. Again, £26m of Borderlands funding, and we will be providing two or three million towards that as well in order to keep the excitement.

Borderlands funding is very important. We managed to get a good chunk of money from that to do those very things that are more difficult. We also have, it’s eight town deals that are getting £3m each to produce projects within their villages. That’s a lot of money. 

It has its problems because you have to make sure that the projects that will get funded are those that meet the majority of the wishes of the majority of the people, and that sometimes is quite difficult. It’s often said the more consultation you do, the more difficult it gets, but actually, we will get there, and we are getting there – providing the very kind of interesting, important things that smaller places would normally not get. So we’ve got more plans coming in as well, and that’s really important. It’s lovely to be able to work with council and council leaders, accross parties, across borders, in a way that delivers for all of us.

At LGIU, we often talk about connected localism. That’s a fantastic example of doing that. Places with their own distinct identities, their own strategies, but also connecting and working across broader geographies as well. The combined authority is also an example of that. You mentioned earlier that you’re the only conservative on the cabinet, but there’s this collaborative approach. How have you found the experience of being part of a combined authority?

I found it mostly good. Some little bits of not-so-good and one or two things that I don’t like at all. But the important thing is to be able to ensure that Northumberland’s voice is heard, and that can be done in a number of ways. Actually, Northumberland has led on the rural and environmental portfolio, and it is so far the only portfolio that has a chunk of money of £13m attached to it that’s been agreed by the Cabinet, and that will be used right across the piece. Obviously, it can bring difficulties because we have Newcastle and Sunderland and Tyneside and so on, and they have different needs and different wishes from ours.

But one thing that I am hopeful will work is the future of bus services because I think it’s very important to have lots of buses running in towns. But it’s also incredibly important to have a bus service that goes to the places where we want to encourage people to go, that may not have a great lot of passengers, but is really important to those passengers. I think that is very important.

We’ve seen how the Northumberland Line works in the south-east of the county. So buses present themselves as a good way of moving forward in rural areas. At the moment, it’s obviously very difficult to get a bus company to do a run that’s not making their money. So that’s our money that then has to go into it. The combined authority will help with the funding, but it’s up to me, really, to make sure I present the case that is reasonable and fair and attractive for any funding I want for Northumberland. Combined Authorities was set up by the conservative government so it’s up to me to make sure it works – and it does, by and large it does.

There are at least six new areas entering into strategic authorities, other places entering into foundational strategic authorities. There will be many council leaders now contemplating that, seeing that coming down the track at them, and may be excited about it, but may also be with some trepidation. I was wondering what your advice to those people would be on what they should know before they get into it?

I think it’s a good question. I think there are dangers and there are safeguards that leaders need to make. I’m sure you figured those out. I think one of the dangers that I see slightly happening now is the fact that we have a fantastic set of officers. We kind of had a bumpy time a few years ago, and we have a really superb chief executive and a team of officers that I want to work with, and we do work really well. 

It is a great blessing for me, actually, to have a cabinet that’s completely together, an office team that’s completely together and the two of us working completely together. What I don’t want to see happening with a combined authority, though, is to see any of those slightly pushed to one side in terms of decision-making. 

I make that absolutely clear because what I don’t want to see is in five years time, county councils being dissolved and all the power being left with a few in a combined authority, which to some perfectly reasonable ambition, but for me, it certainly isn’t. So I think the principle is fine. The need to work in a relatively tough but consensual way is also very important. And to make sure that the relations are important from the start, because having a row with somebody at the beginning is not really in anybody’s interest. So, to leaders, I would say go in with the ambition of making it work, and I think most will work, but you do have to be on your toes, and I do worry, to be honest, I do worry slightly about the bigger picture in a decade’s time.

I did want to talk a bit about the future. Firstly, where would you like to see Northumberland in 10 years time? But also, what are the things that you are doing now to set the foundations for that 10-year horizon?

What are we doing now? We are doing two things. We have already created a new land assembly not very far away from this site, where we have sufficient land to be able to interest a large manufacturing capacity. There are talks going on at the moment on that bit of land.

We are also making sure that businesses in rural areas, villages, and so on have the benefits of the funding we’re getting from the Northumberland Growth Fund. Plus going to the combined authority to seek grant funding for specific issues. A lot of them are around tourism still, because tourism is incredibly important for Northumberland, and need to make more of that still. We need to make the attraction even greater across the county, rather than just going to the places that are really popular now.

We are also making sure that we continue to have free town centre car parking. Now that maybe doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. It costs us quite a lot of money. But that is a way of keeping our town with enough people coming in still to shop locally. That’s really important.

What is true to say is that in recent years, Northumberland has had more funding coming in than at any time in the history of the County Council. And that’s because we have a great team with clear ambition from us, the politicians.

I would say very good relations between the vast majority of members in the Chamber who want to see the same thing as us. So I think strength of purpose, the same ambition, the same commitment, the same excitement, and the honour of being in this seat and running the Council will always be a passion for me, absolute passion. As long as we keep that passion, we’ll just go from strength to strength.

Yeah, that’s really inspirational. It is one of the strengths of local politics at its best, isn’t it? Because it’s based around places, you can get some people moving in the same direction, people with the same aspiration across party. At its best, local politics offers a model of how to do things that I think national politics could learn from in terms of sort of focus.

One of the things that really strikes me in what you’re saying is that attention to both the small and the big, the immediate and the long term. For many people in leadership positions, that’s one of the challenges people often reflect back to me. Trying to attend to the day-to-day small things and the big picture future things at the same time is incredibly challenging. How do you maintain that dual focus and that link? How do you maintain that dual perspective?

Well, I think you maintain it by making sure you listen to people a lot and do genuine, genuine face-to-face stuff, which is something I like to do. So you genuinely know what people want. I think it’s a sense of responsibility. That it is absolutely pointless, completely pointless running a council to deliver pot-hole repairs and emptying bins and adult social care and do all of that stuff, and nothing else. It is about using the money that you have and, I don’t want to sound party political, but it would be very nice if we had some more money from government, but I won’t go there. But there’s so much more we could do. It would be fantastic to get some more money. But actually being a council is like running a business. You’ve got to think about what you’re trying to do, what you really want to do and making sure that what you really want to do is what everybody wants to do, and then doing it.