Teesside still is a massive manufacturing area contributing nearly 10% to the GDP of the UK
Interesting. That would make the ongoing woes of DTVA particularly hard to explain. But UK GDP in 2011 was £1440 billion. According to the NE Process Industries Cluster (NEPIC), GDP in the whole of the North East England was £38.8bn. That's 2.7% - and that's for the whole of the NE, not just Tees-side.
NS