Tom's role includes taking forward the negotiation and agreement of six
local area agreements within Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, leading as
locality manager for Sunderland and Gateshead, as well as leading the
Government Office engagement with local government and partners within that
area. He is also responsible for helping to develop the multi area
agreement across the Tyne and Wear city region to improvement economic
development, employability and transport connectivity.
After graduating from Durham University, Tom worked in Wandsworth as a
youth and community worker, before joining the civil service in 1993.
He started his civil service career in the Department of Transport
working on local transport planning and helping to produce an integrated
transport strategy for London. After spells in the Government Office for
London, and International Shipping (where he chaired the environmental
enforcement sub-group of the International Maritime Organisation), Tom
moved to the Government Office for the North East in 1998, helping set the
new Government’s New Deal for Communities programme within the
region.
After a short spell leading the region’s work on education, Tom took
over as lead strategic advisor to local strategic partnerships within
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear in April 2004, as well as acting as
interim chair of the Sunderland New Deal for Communities partnership. In
March 2005, he combined this role with operating as the lead partner for
central government to Gateshead Council, helping the development of their
sustainable community strategy and local area agreement, while also
successfully studying for his masters degree at Northumbria
University.
Tom took over his current role in September 2007. He is a Member of the
Institution of Economic Development, and is married with two young
children. He tries to keep his allotment productive, weed-free and organic,
play badminton semi-competitively, is a member of a local church and runs a
cub pack in Newcastle.
