Episode 4: Net Zero Teesside's local contract wins, Teesport's massive rooftop solar array, and the housing pipeline keeps growing

Transcript

DARREN: Welcome back to the Teesside Trade Podcast, the weekly show covering construction, trades and property news across the Tees Valley. I'm Darren Turnbull.

DARREN: And joining me from this week, a new voice on the show. Terry Oakes has spent thirty years on sites right across Teesside, from Billingham to Redcar, and he'll be here every week with the view from the tools. Terry, welcome.

TERRY: Thanks, Daz. Good to be here. And I'll be honest, there's plenty to talk about — it feels like every week there's another crane going up somewhere on the patch.

DARREN: That's exactly why we're here. Every story we cover is linked in the show notes and the full transcript is at teessidetradepodcast.co.uk, with the written versions at teessidetradenews.co.uk. Let's get into it.

DARREN: Story one, and it's the big industrial one. Work on Net Zero Teesside at Teesworks is visibly ramping up. The multi-million-pound upgrade of Redcar Bulk Terminal's deep-water quay is complete, and the first major equipment for the NZT Power plant has arrived through the port.

TERRY: And that quay matters more than people think, Daz. You can't build a power station if you can't land the kit. That upgrade is the enabling work — heavy civils, marine piling, the lot. Once that's done, the real construction phase can start.

DARREN: There's a local win in here too. Teesside-based Cavendish Northern has won a piping pre-fabrication contract on the East Coast Cluster projects. When these mega-projects were announced, the big question was always whether the supply chain work would actually land with local firms.

TERRY: That's the bit I watch. The headline contracts go to the big nationals, that's a given. But a local firm winning the pre-fab work — that's real money staying in Teesside, and it means local lads on the job. If we see more of that, the whole thing starts to justify the hype.

DARREN: For the trades listening, Balfour Beatty is already running a local recruitment campaign for NZT Power and the Northern Endurance Partnership. Worth keeping an eye on if you're after site work.

DARREN: Story two, and staying with energy. PD Ports has switched on one of the largest rooftop solar installations in Teesside — a six hundred and seventy-five kilowatt system on the roof of the biggest warehouse on the Tees Bulks Quay at Teesport.

TERRY: Two thousand panels, Daz. Two thousand. And more than twenty kilometres of cabling. That's a serious electrical job.

DARREN: It is, and it points at a bigger trend. Industrial and warehouse roofs are some of the best solar sites in the country — big, unshaded, structurally sound. With energy costs where they are, more businesses are looking at generating their own power.

TERRY: I'll tell you what I'm seeing on the domestic side. Solar enquiries have gone properly mainstream. Two years ago it was a niche job. Now homeowners are asking about panels and battery storage in the same breath as a re-roof. And that's the right order to do it in, by the way — get the roof inspected first, then put panels on it. A solar array on a failing roof is an expensive mistake.

DARREN: Good advice. And the new-build market is baking it in as standard — the two hundred and forty-three homes approved at Wynyard, which we covered last week, all come with solar panels and EV charging. That's renewables and electrical work on every single plot.

TERRY: Every plot, Daz. Roofers, electricians, solar fitters — all fed by the same pipeline.

DARREN: Story three, and that pipeline keeps growing. Barratt Homes has secured approval for three hundred and twenty-three homes on a seventeen-point-eight-hectare site at Skelton in East Cleveland — one of the largest residential consents in Redcar and Cleveland this year.

TERRY: Add that to Wynyard, the forty bungalows in Thorntree, and everything else we talked about last week — that's a proper residential order book for the next few years. Steady, dependable work. New homes need everything: groundworks, brickwork, roofing, first and second fix, plastering, joinery, landscaping.

DARREN: Which brings us neatly to the thread running under all of this week's stories — labour. The CITB says UK construction needs more than forty-one thousand extra workers every year to twenty thirty, over two hundred thousand in total. Terry, you're closer to this than most. What's the reality on the ground?

TERRY: It's tight, Daz, no question. Every scheme we've talked about today — Teesworks, the housing, the solar work — they all draw on the same pool of local tradespeople. Good lads are booked solid. The firms I rate are the ones taking on apprentices now, because in three years' time, that investment is the difference between winning work and turning it away.

DARREN: And for homeowners listening, the flip side matters. Good trades are busy. If you're planning work for autumn or winter — a re-roof, a rewire, a bathroom — get quotes in and secure your dates early. And be wary of anyone who can start a big job tomorrow. In this market, that usually tells you something.

TERRY: Couldn't put it better myself.

DARREN: That's it for episode two. Next week we'll have the latest planning decisions, contract wins and project starts from across Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Hartlepool and Darlington.

DARREN: You'll find the full transcript and links to every source at teessidetradepodcast.co.uk, and the written versions at teessidetradenews.co.uk. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

TERRY: See you next week.