IMAGINE being given a box containing millions of pieces of lego and then being told to build something. What would you choose? A house? A car? A metropolis? Your imagination and the number of bricks are the only limitations.

It may be a simplistic metaphor, but sitting in front of that box of lego is not too far removed from the task faced by Dr John Bridge and Mike Collier four years ago when the Labour Government came up with the idea of regional development agencies - but with a few important exceptions.

The lego bricks were millions of pounds and the eyes of the region and of the Government were firmly trained on their creative decisions.

Of the nine RDAs, One NorthEast led the way in creating a strategic approach to economic development. It put in place a strategy document, identifying the challenges to regional prosperity and mapping out the future direction of the North-East's economic revival.

Messrs Bridge and Collier had a difficult task, one for which they ran into criticism and yet, ultimately, were credited with laying the building blocks of a sounder, more sustainable future.

That first age of One NorthEast has ended. Bridge and Collier are gone.

Now the box has changed hands and the second age is upon us, the age of delivery.

Former Northumberland County Council chief executive Alan Clarke has been in post eight months, his chairman Margaret Fay, ex-managing director of Tyne Tees Television, has barely slipped her feet under the table since starting at the turn of the year, and a trio of directors have been appointed.

Tongue in cheek, they have been dubbed The Magnificent Seven, but only time will tell how apropriate the nickname is.

Mr Clarke said: "Now we have the team in place, quite rightly people are going to say let's see the difference, let's feel the difference in the region.

"We are working with a new management team to really start making a difference."

Ms Fay, newer to her post than Mr Clarke, is still climbing the steep learning curve that comes with the job.

She said: "What is very new for me is the range and diversity of issues. I have never seen a diary so full. There is not a lot of time for reflection at the moment.

"I know the vast majority of the business community and worked closely with the MPs, but the new side for me is Whitehall, as I have not dealt with the departments before.

"People have been very warm and very welcoming. Everyone is allowed a honeymoon period. Coming from a different background, people are wanting to see what I am made of."

The honeymoon is unlikely to last very long, but the pairing already have a broad idea of the direction in which they want to take the agency.

The idea is now to concentrate on fewer projects, but to raise the scale above and beyond the imaginations of their predecessors.

Ms Fay says: "We really do need to see fewer but bigger things that need more impact. There is a feeling we have tried to be equal to everyone, and in doing so, have been equal, but have not concentrated on fewer, bigger initiatives."

Four areas have been identified.

Firstly, the agency wants to continue the work of the centres of excellence and sees this as a big area of activity for the next five to ten years.

Then there is the finishing touches to the ongoing business support review which has "yet to be put to bed", according to Mr Clarke.

A more captivating area for the wider public will be concentrating on tourism, culture and creativity. One NorthEast has given enormous backing to Culture 10, the initiative designed to maintain the momentum generated by the Capital of Culture bid. It has committed £25m to this venture until 2010.

The furore between the agency and Northumbria Tourist Board, created after the Government gave strategic responsibility for tourism to the RDAs, will also hopefully be settled amicably before One NorthEast takes a long, hard look at ways to raise the quality of tourism attractions in the region.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest task, will be the seemingly ever-present problem of low skill levels in a region drained of much of its best and brightest talent.

Mr Clarke said: "I do not think we have done (skills) justice so far as an agency."

Ms Fay agreed: "I would like to see an improvement in the skills profile in the region - partly on the one hand for the unemployed and low skilled people but also people in work to up-skill. We need to constantly plan for tomorrow."

They want to forge ever closer links with skills agencies such as JobCentre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council.

And in skills, the chairman sees a sub-division of the ideology behind limiting the number of initiatives: "We have got to pick on three or four big practical skills initiatives that are really going to improve the region - some about basic skills, some about higher knowledge base, some will have to link back to what goes on in the schools."

Some will raise questions about more substantial projects. Promising to raise skills levels is all well and good, but it is a lot less tangible than a major transport infrastructure improvement, or a resurrection of the manufacturing industry, or perhaps the underpinning of mainstays in the region such as chemicals and even steelmaking.

Despite this, Mr Clarke believes the formation of the new board of directors will give the region a greater understanding of the agency itself and the work it intends to carry out.

"There is a greater clarity among the business community and among our partners about what we are about, the things we can do and cannot do, what our priorities are and how people can help us. We do need support from the rest of the region and the business community.

"The business community can also help us in some of the image-building and market promotion that we need to do. We need to make sure that others in the region are singing from the same hymn sheet."

There appears to be a consensus that the agency is there to be judged now the team is in place to deliver on its promises, and the new chief executive has not been shy in revealing his ultimate goal.

"First of all, we need to be more ambitious. We need confidence grounded in credibility. My ambition is for One NorthEast to be the best RDA in the UK with the best economic regeneration staff and be recognised as such. That is a three to four-year ambition. There is only a point in that if we can help to create a strong and sustainable regional economy."