Gateshead to host UK International Investment Summit in spring 2027

Gateshead will host the UK government's next International Investment Summit in spring 2027, chancellor John Healey announced in Wednesday's Budget.

Healey named Gateshead in his Commons speech, although the published Budget document identifies Newcastle as the location. The government has not yet announced a precise date or venue.

The announcement follows reporting by Sky News city editor Mark Kleinman on Tuesday that the government was drawing up plans for a summit in the North East, where ministers hoped to announce tens of billions of pounds in investment deals involving companies and investors.

The summit had previously been pencilled in for 1 December in London under former prime minister Keir Starmer. His successor, Andy Burnham, postponed the event, with ministers seeking to hold it outside the capital in spring 2027.

Manchester subsequently emerged as the likely host, with Abu Dhabi-based The National reporting in September that a political source considered the city highly likely to be chosen.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness said the region had pressed for the summit to be held in the North.

"That's why we insisted in September the International Investment Summit should be held in the North," she said in response to the Budget.

McGuinness said thousands of investors from around the world would visit Gateshead and pledged to turn the event into opportunities for people across the North East.

Alongside the summit, the government is funding a reported £7m feasibility study into hosting a future Olympic and Paralympic Games in the North of England. Review North recently looked at what a Northern Olympics could mean for the region.

The announcement follows efforts to develop a coordinated Northern investment offer through The Great North partnership, which McGuinness chairs. Earlier this month she led the partnership's trade mission to India.

In May, the partnership held its first Great North Investment Summit in Leeds and launched a prospectus identifying more than £14bn of investment opportunities across Northern England, developed in collaboration with the government's Office for Investment.

The prospectus also anticipated a national Trade and Investment Summit in 2027, with the North forming part of the government's investment offer. It said The Great North was working with HM Treasury and the Office for Investment to develop investment opportunities across industry, housing and infrastructure.

Among the North East proposals is a £3bn Green Energy Corridor covering industrial and port sites along the Tyne and at Blyth, including Tyne Clean Energy Park and Swans and Neptune Energy Parks. The figure represents proposed gross development value, not investment already secured.

Closer to the summit's planned location, the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority is developing proposals for a Newcastle-Gateshead Mayoral Development Zone covering Gateshead Quays, Forth Yards and other sites along the Tyne.

The authority has also entered a strategic partnership with the National Wealth Fund to help turn regeneration and infrastructure proposals into projects capable of attracting investment.

The previous International Investment Summit, held in October 2024, was associated with £63bn of UK-wide private investment commitments. These included Blackstone's £10bn data centre investment in Blyth, Northumberland and an additional £225m investment by SeAH Wind in its Teesside manufacturing facility.

Some of those commitments had been announced before the summit itself, and the total represented planned investment rather than expenditure already delivered.

No investment agreements have yet been identified for the 2027 summit, and the government has not indicated how much of any announced investment might be directed towards the North East.