Government champions £3billion Saudi Arabian North East investment at Riyadh trade summit

The Government has championed a £3 billion Saudi Arabian investment in the North East that it is claimed will sustain 2,000 jobs.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden made the announcement at a trade summit in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, which he hailed as an “important moment for British business”.

It includes a specific panel on Newcastle promoting the city as a “gateway to Saudi through innovative trade and investment”.

The Department for Business and Trade say the relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia provides opportunities across a range of sectors and will help contribute to the country's net zero ambitions.

However, human rights campaigners have raised concerns about the prospect of increasing ties between Tyneside and Saudi Arabia, with Amnesty International warning this week that such relationships can “distract attention” from the kingdom’s “appalling human rights record”.

Mr Dowden has been joined by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer in the Gulf state along with a delegation of 450 British businesses.

A press release promoting the two-day UK-Saudi summit highlighted that “figures to be announced by the Deputy Prime Minister show the North East alone stands to benefit from a further £3 billion of ongoing investment from Saudi Arabia, helping to sustain c.2000 jobs in the region”.

It added that the Great Futures conference is “expected to secure a constellation of investment across critical sectors: from financial services, to higher education”, but did not specify what the North East investment relates to.

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative CEO Sarah Green, Newcastle United Women head coach Becky Langley, Northumbria University vice-chancellor Andy Long and North East Screen CEO Alison Gwynn are all listed among the speakers at the Riyadh summit.

On the schedule for day two of the event on Wednesday is a panel entitled “Focus On Newcastle Upon Tyne: Building A Gateway To Saudi Through Innovative Trade And Investment”.

The agenda for that discussion states it will cover how the takeover of Newcastle United, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has created a “unique opportunity between Saudi Arabia and the North East of England" to benefit the whole UK.

The summit began on the same day that the Local Democracy Reporting Service published details of emails between senior figures at Newcastle City Council and Newcastle United, revealing a push from city officials to secure more money from and closer ties with the Gulf nation following the football club's Saudi-led takeover.

The messages, obtained via a freedom of information request from the NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing group, included a briefing written from council director Michelle Percy for Ms Staveley ahead of a meeting with investment minister Lord Dominic Johnson in April 2023.

That note, from April 2023, stated that “there is an ambition for Newcastle to attract further investment from the [Gulf] region” following the NUFC takeover, to increase exports from the North East, and bring in tourists.

The cache of emails also detailed how the council asked Ms Staveley to intervene at the highest levels of the UK Government to secure funding for the Tyne Bridge’s restoration and how city Labour leader Nick Kemp urged the football club to pay more than £23 million to pay for free school meals.

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