Sir John Hall, entrepreneur, creator of the MetroCentre, former chairman of Newcastle United Football Club and owner of Wynyard Hall, near Billingham, says if people vote for regional government, he will stand as an Independent candidate. He explains why he supports a regional assembly.

"I SUPPORT the idea of regional government. I was born and bred in the North-East, my great-grandfather, grandfather and father worked in the mines, and I have a strong sense of belonging to the region. I think it is important that the region can be identifiable in the global market and that it can have a say in its own destiny. That is what regional government offers us.

The move towards regional government is the culmination of 20 years work for people like myself. It goes back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the traditional industries of mining, shipbuilding and steelmaking were in decline. The region was in decline and lacked confidence. I was one of a group of business people who met and sought to break the cycle of decline, which led to the formation of the Northern Development Company.

Then, when I recently heard John Prescott outline his views for regional government, I was quite impressed. What he was saying was 'you have been calling for more control over your own affairs for a long time, well, here is the opportunity.'

I feel regional government can bring benefits to the North-East. It must be a strategic body which can plan the region's destiny. Local government must remain local - people need somewhere to go when they need to discuss very local issues. But the elected assembly has to take a strategic view of areas such as the economy, culture, sport, planning, etc. It must come up with policies which are sustainable. Governments come and go, ministers come and go, the assembly's policies must be sustainable over many years.

We have to harness the sense of innovation and enterprise in this region. If we make mistakes, at least they will be our mistakes. We have too many civil servants and quangos making decisions for the region. It is time for them to be part of the democratic process. Some of them will still be needed if a regional assembly is established but they will need to be accountable to an elected assembly.

People ask how regional government and its policies can be financed. The Government has stated that it will make a grant to pay the costs of an elected assembly of £25m per annum. There is also around £1.5bn coming into the region from bodies such as One NorthEast, 100-plus quangos and many other organisations. The regional government will need to work with them to make use of that money.

What we can do is only limited by our imaginations. Take sport as an example. I would like to see centres of excellence for sports established in the region, be it football, rugby, cricket or whatever. We have to go into the schools and find the champions of tomorrow. This will be a long-term policy looking at sport from grassroots to champion level.

I would like to see a regional television station: the BBC and Tyne Tees broadcast just six hours of regional television a week. I think we need an independent television station making programmes about the North-East.

I would also like to see the region go for growth, and I think we should seek to attract more people into the region: 2.7 million is not enough, we need more people, more investment, more homes, more businesses starting up. And it is not just about the Samsungs and the Nissans, we need to encourage the small and medium-sized businesses as well.

I would like to see the region branded with its own flag and logo. It would be great to see our football teams or a champion athlete winning with our symbol on their sleeve or a business identifying products with a 'Made in the North-East' stamp.

The regional assembly will need money, power and leadership. Now is the time for negotiations to ensure that the Government gives us enough power and money, but the assembly will also need leadership. If it is just a Labour Party assembly, people will not vote for it. We need the politicians to be imaginative and we need people from all walks of life. This is the time for the revolution.

I read some figures recently, which said the GDP per head in the North-East is lower than any other English region, unemployment is higher, a higher proportion claim income support, 12 of our local authorities are on the list of the 50 most deprived areas, educational attainment in the North-East is well below the UK average and the North-East has more health problems than any other region.

That clinched the argument for me. The existing system needs change and it is time for that to happen. We need a new way of working, to increase our self confidence, to improve the perception of the North-East among people outside the region. It will not happen overnight, structures and policies take time to introduce and they have to be thought through. But, travelling round Europe, I see regions which are grasping their opportunities and we need to do the same. We need to go for growth and to do that we need new ideas.

My home, Wynyard Hall, was built by the third Marquis of Londonderry, who was a 19th century entrepreneur. When he died, his widow, Lady Anne, built a memorial to him in the house and on his stone it says what he achieved was through his "initiative, enterprise and indomitable perseverance".

This region has all of these qualities: it has a great energy and a great sense of enterprise and we need to harness all our talents. I think regional government is a great opportunity. It is our moment in time and if we reject it the opportunity may not come again. That's why I'm voting YES in October."