Hartlepool has always been a town that grafted and built things.

For generations we built ships, powered industry and kept Britain moving.

But for too long our town has been overlooked, our skills undervalued and our young people told they had to leave to find opportunity.

That’s why the new Nuclear and Electrical Trades Academy we’ve announced last week matters so much.

From left, Denise McGuckin, chief executive of Hartlepool Council, Rob Booker, chief strategy and transformation officer at Centrica, Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, leader of Hartlepool Council, Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, Alistair Black, vice president of X-Energy, education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Gary Riches, vice principal of Hartlepool FE College.

placeholder image — From left, Denise McGuckin, chief executive of Hartlepool Council, Rob Booker, chief strategy and transformation officer at Centrica, Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, leader of Hartlepool Council, Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, Alistair Black, vice president of X-Energy, education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Gary Riches, vice principal of Hartlepool FE College.

For years the old Binns building in Middleton Grange has stood empty.

Now we’re turning it into something powerful again.

Thanks to £13.8 million of investment already secured, that building will be brought back into use as a place where local people can learn real skills and walk straight into real jobs.

This idea started with Pamela Hargreaves, the leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, who had a simple but brilliant vision: If huge new energy projects are coming to Hartlepool then our people should be first in line for the jobs.

For months we’ve been working side by side to make it happen.

The result is a proper partnership that brings together the people who can actually deliver: Hartlepool College of Further Education, Hartlepool Development Corporation and major energy companies like Centrica and X-energy.

Together they’ll help train the next generation of electricians, fabricators, technicians and engineers, the skilled workers who will build Britain’s energy future.

And make no mistake: that future is coming right here.

Last September we secured a £12 billion nuclear deal that will bring advanced nuclear technology to Hartlepool and create thousands of jobs over the coming decades. For our town, it’s one of the biggest economic opportunities in a generation.

But investment on paper means nothing if local people don’t benefit.

I’ve always been clear about one thing: those must be Hartlepool jobs for Hartlepool people.

That means local training. Local apprenticeships. Local workers building the projects that are transforming our town.

The Nuclear and Electrical Trades Academy links the massive investment coming to Hartlepool directly to the people who live here.

It’s also exactly the kind of regeneration our town deserves: bringing a landmark building back into use, backing practical skills instead of empty talk and giving our young people a future they don’t have to move away to find.

Hartlepool powered Britain before.

We’ll do it again and this time our community will reap the rewards.