North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has set out her priorities for 2025 in a New Year’s message to the region.
The Mayor says the next 12 months will mark the ‘next chapter in our region’s revival’, prioritising action on public transport, high streets, childcare and climate change.
The New Year starts with the Mayor taking steps to keep bus fares more affordable for passengers, with the introduction of a new fare cap today (January 1) of £2.50.
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said:
2025 is going to be the year the North East moves forward with more good jobs, better and greener public transport and help for parents raising children in hardship.
It was a huge honour to be elected the first North East Mayor just eight months ago - and now as we enter 2025 I look back at the difference we are making, and forward to our big plans for the future.
In 2024 our region worked together to save jobs at the train maker Hitachi in County Durham – that’s a proud North East workforce still going strong thanks to firm new contracts.
And we came together again as a region when we set up the country’s first Child Poverty Reduction Unit, harnessing the experience and ideas of hundreds of people to come up with real action right now – like our new Childcare Grant for parents returning to work, and our £1 flat fare on buses and Metro for everyone right up to their 22nd birthday.
Now it’s time for the next chapter in our region’s revival.
This spring we will establish a High Street Commission, with national experts working alongside local champions to pilot the investment that safeguards the hearts of our communities.
We’ll also be giving out the first grants from our new £1 million pound Mayor’s Opportunity Fund to support the great work of charities and community groups.
And as we back the many proud towns and neighbourhoods that make up the North East, we’ll also make it easier for you to get around them.
I’m going to double the number of electric buses on our streets this year with 95 new vehicles on order, plus a major £16 million investment for EV charging points where drivers need them – and of course we will see the roll-out of Metro’s new trains.
As part of my promise to make this the greenest region we’ll also be opening of one of the country’s first Carbon and Nature Marketplaces.
It is a huge honour to be Mayor, and to have met so many new faces through my work around the region.
What shines through is the passion we share for the place we call home, and the burning ambition to build something better for the future. That is my mission in 2025.