Return to Teesside

Available for over a year

Job losses have plagued Teesside for decades and the area still has a stubbornly high unemployment rate. Ruth Sunderland grew up in Middlesbrough where her father worked as an engineer. In 1987 the company, where he'd been employed since he was a teenager, collapsed and he never worked again. Believing there was no future for her in her home town, she left to forge a career in London. Following more recent job losses in the steel industry, Ruth returns to her roots. Will entrepreneurial start-ups provide young Teessiders with prospects that, 30 years ago, she could not see? And what does the post-steel, post-Brexit future look like from Teesside? Producer: Rosamund Jones.