YESTERDAY the government announced that a new port to build wind turbine blades is being created in Teesside.

The new factory will create around 3,000 jobs, after a deal was struck with GE Renewables.

In an interview, the Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said: "I'm delighted to be in a position where we're announcing huge investment of up to £20m in Teesside and that also follows hard on the heels of the announcement of the Freeport. So, I think both of these announcements are big wins for the people of Teesside.

"I'm delighted also, that GE have announced major investment in the port, they want to make wind turbines, which are absolutely crucial, as we all know, for offshore wind and offshore wind has been a great British success story. We have something like a third of the global capacity, so all the offshore wind generating capacity in the world - a third of it is in the UK.

"But one of the things that we haven't been so good at, is actually making sure that we get British business and British jobs, crucially, behind the offshore wind effort and I think the kind of investment we're going to see in Teesside is going to help us land key manufacturing businesses, supply great jobs, which can then feed, as it were, our offshore wind capacity through wind turbines.

"What I want to say, also, is that I think some of your representation has been outstanding, people like Ben Houchen - great leaders, people like Jacob Young who I speak to a great deal, have really championed the region, and I think we're in a really really good place and I'm delighted that we've managed to support their efforts and support the people of Teesside, in the way that we are and I'm very very happy about that."

When asked about who the other manufacturers will be, Mr Kwarteng, said: "Clearly the Freeport status and GE moving into the area will attract and has already attracted a huge amount of interest from other manufacturers who are feeding the supply chain.

"We're in conversations with lots and lots of people, who are engaged with exploring possibilities. They're very excited about the region, they're very excited about the Freeport. They think there's very strong political leadership and they really want to engage with this and I'm hopeful that we can, confident even, that we'll be able to see more developments in that regard."

When asked why was the Teesside site chosen, Mr Kwarteng, said: "I think there was a competition that we announced, I think the Prime Minister announced it at the end of last year, in terms of investment and I think Teesside was really an outstanding candidate for a number of reasons. It's got a great industrial history it's played a huge role in the economic development of this country, there are great traditions and skills that people wanted to tap into and we feel in a new industry like offshore wind, and clearly it's positioned in the North sea as we all know, facing the North sea, and that's the location where our offshore wind industry is mainly based.

"So, there were lots of reasons, historic, contemporary reasons, convenience reasons why such investment really makes a lot of sense and I'm confident with this Freeport announcement that the Chancellor made last week, along with good political leadership, I think that the future is very bright."