Council leader and chief executive reflect on key initiatives and successes of 2025
South Tyneside Council's most senior council officer and councillor have reflected on key initiatives and successes of 2025, along with revealing ambitions for the coming year.
The local authority's chief executive Jonathan Tew and Labour council leader, councillor Tracey Dixon, were speaking at the council's main scrutiny committee earlier this month (December 15, 2025) as part of an "annual review" presentation.
Councillors on the Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating and Call-In Committee were told about the council's actions delivering against its vision and ambitions over the past 12 months, and dozens of key initiatives were listed.
Council leader, councillor Tracey Dixon, said the scrutiny session presented an opportunity to look back collectively at the "scale and impact" of delivery across council services, while acknowledging the wider backdrop of council budget pressures, economic factors and community cohesion.
The presentation was structured around the council's five ambitions around creating a South Tyneside where people are "financially secure", "healthy and well", "connected to jobs", "part of strong communities" and where "support is targeted to make things fairer."
The presentation said the council had made a real impact on the financial security of residents through various 2025 initiatives, including the council bringing forward a child poverty strategy in March, described as the first council strategy of its kind in the region.
Other successful initiatives and actions included South Tyneside's network of 60-plus welcoming spaces, support for food banks and community shops, the council's welfare support team "unlocking" £11.1 million in "unclaimed welfare benefits and debt support" for residents, 1,800 children taking part in activities delivered by local providers as part of the borough's holidays, activities and food programme, and 424 local pensioners receiving "additional winter support" payments following changes in the benefit.
On the council's "healthy and well" ambition, councillors were told about the council "strengthening its accommodation offer" for care experienced children, with building work complete on three children's residential homes, along with the council projects progressing delivering specialist housing for older residents.
This included 21 new homes for "people with learning disabilities and complex care requirements" at Hedgeley Road in Hebburn and Concorde Way in Jarrow, as well as "important steps forward in expanding extra care facilities", with work under way on 219 new apartments across two key sites, including 95 apartments at the Lincoln Court site and 124 apartments at the former Chuter Ede site.
The presentation said there had been an "impressive" 1.6 million visits recorded to council leisure facilities over 2024/25, along with investment into refurbished tennis courts and a new BMX pump track, and work to reduce alcohol harm and smoking and work around tackling loneliness and social isolation.
Cllr Dixon noted that 2025 saw construction begin on the £95 million project to relocate the South Tyneside College and Marine School campus to South Shields town centre, as well as key steps for a regeneration initiative in Jarrow to unlock £20 million of Government funding over the next decade, and other major funding announcements around Hebburn Town Football Club.
As part of the "connected to jobs" ambition, councillors heard that more than 400 businesses had been engaged with the South Tyneside Pledge and its advice network, alongside committing to spend and recruit locally, as well as 5,110 young people engaging in the schools careers programme and announcements around hundreds of new jobs being created at the International Advanced Manufacturing Park, including at the AESC gigafactory.
As part of the "strong communities" ambition, key achievements included the hosting of a five-day climate summit to inform the next steps of the council's sustainability plans, the formal opening of the Viking Energy Network in Jarrow, reduced anti-social behaviour rates, new council homes being delivered at Lizard Lane and Reynolds Avenue, thousands of people attending seasonal council entertainment events and South Tyneside being "one of four areas nationally selected to host [the] National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2025-27."
In the "targeting support to make things fairer" ambition, the £20 million ‘Pride in Place’ funding secured for Biddick Hall was noted as an achievement, along with work to launch a new "data observatory", continued Armed Forced support, the development of a "community cohesion plan" and more.
Jonathan Tew, chief executive officer at South Tyneside Council, said while the presentation listed "incredible initiatives and improvements", he praised the work of council staff involved in "core service delivery" and the "big and small things that make such a difference to people's lives".
"It's worth hovering over some of the numbers, the absolutely astonishing volume of contact and volume of responsibility, the assets that we're responsible for and their scale, even in a borough this size and just huge credit to the team across the council," he said.
The council's chief executive added the local authority was progressing its "change programme" and that with "resources stretched and demand for services high", the programme aimed to ensure the council is a "modern, efficient organisation in every way possible", as well as responding to national reforms impacting council service areas.
This included a programme focusing on improving public services, including reforms, working for those with "greatest need", and a "modern council" programme which aims to "streamline" the council and make the most of technology as part of a wider drive to "make every pound count".
The presentation said that digital investment had included the roll-out of upgraded network infrastructure across 50 locations, as well as the launch of a new "IT service management platform", "in-cab technology for waste teams" and pilots around artificial intelligence to "help staff prioritise their time and resources where it matters most and where their expertise and qualifications matter most".
Council chief executive Mr Tew said this was "particularly helpful around social work and trying to reduce the burden of administration in social work, and to free up their time to focus on giving good care to residents."
Councillors were told that a recent employee survey, which saw a 55 per cent response rate from the council's workforce (with 1,885 responses), showed the council was "on the right track".
This included 98 per cent of respondents "feeling trusted to do their job", 91 per cent "recommending the council as a place to work" and 94 per cent "feeling supported by their manager", with further analysis of the survey and findings expected in the new year.
Council leader, Tracey Dixon, said that 2026 would be "another big year" for the council and outlined key plans.
This included "continued investment into core services", ensuring the council has "the right accommodation support for our children, young people and adults", South Tyneside Council "responding and adapting to national reforms in everything from health to housing, education and social care" and expectations that the council's blueprint for the borough, the local plan, will be adopted [2026/27].
Other key plans for 2026 include the launch of a refreshed South Tyneside Housing Strategy, regeneration schemes progressing in South Shields town centre, Jarrow and Hebburn, "the development of a new environmental growth strategy" and "work to strengthen and simplify waste services" and new "fleet investment".
"2026 will be a year of continuing with work against some of our more challenging and long-standing priorities, including ongoing work to tackle child poverty, efforts to address economic inactivity and continued effort and leadership around sustainability and supporting our environment," council leader Cllr Dixon added.
"Underpinning all of this we will continue with our modernisation and transformation plans, including launching our new digital and ICT strategy, rolling out new people, payroll, finance and procurement systems and much more.
"As part of managing resource and capacity we will also be continuing with our work on values and cultures, including our people and organisational development work to ensure that our workforce is supported and empowered, but will also work with elected members, including continued development and training support, and also working to respond to the recent chair of Standard Committee's annual report about members' behaviour."
Cllr Dixon added that the council, as an organisation, was "well-positioned and capable of rising to whatever challenge" comes in 2026.
Reports are expected to go before all South Tyneside councillors at a future borough council meeting in the new year.