The Northern Agenda

⚡ The man bringing lightning fast broadband to the North 🌊 Carbon capture: Storing CO2 under the sea could bring jobs to our region

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Episode notes

Northern Agenda Editor Rob Parsons is back on podcasting duties after a break for Easter and ready and raring to go with more expert analysis about two topics which could make a huge difference to the lives of people in our region in the coming years.

First, there's carbon capture and storage - where the harmful emissions from our polluting industries in the North aren't simply released into the atmosphere but stored in enormous under-sea caverns instead. 

The Government is backing this technology to the tune of £20bn but how does it all work and will it make any difference to levelling up or net zero in places like Teesside, the Humber and the North West?

Rob's been talking to a leading expert, Jonathan Briggs, Director of Humber Zero with VPI Power, a firm based in Immingham south of the River Humber, to find out more.

PLUS: We all need a fast, reliable internet connection but there are still a few pockets of the country that can't get the fast broadband speeds the rest of us have come to expect - and many of them are in rural or remote towns and villages in the North.

That's a big problem for anyone trying to start a business in these areas and often means, ultimately, that families move out to find areas with better connections.

So the stakes are very high - and the man put in charge of the effort to roll out faster broadband is Simon Blagden, who chairs the government's Building Digital UK agency. He talks to Rob about his work on Project Gigabit and how broadband is even an issue in his village in North Yorkshire.

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The Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. It is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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