Work has begun on Blyth's £25m Energy Central Institute on the old Keel Row site. Costs rose £5.7m, part covered by money once set aside for a town hotel.

Work has officially started on the £25m Energy Central Institute in Blyth town centre. It will bring degree-level teaching to the town for the first time. Spades went into the ground on Friday 2 October, and the building is due to open in late 2027 (Northumberland County Council).

The Institute is going up next to the Market Place, facing the new Market Pavilion. It stands on land cleared after the demolition of the former Keel Row Shopping Centre. The last structures on the site came down between September 2025 and January 2026 (Cabinet report, 7 April 2026).

What the building is for

The Institute is the second phase of Energy Central Campus, a company set up in October 2021 by the Port of Blyth, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and the county council. The first phase, the Energy Central Learning Hub at the port, opened in September 2024.

The new building will teach clean energy skills at degree and PhD level. The partners named by the council are:

  • Newcastle University
  • Durham University
  • the ORE Catapult
  • energy businesses, which the April report says include JDR Cables, RWE and Equinor as sponsors of the existing hub

The Cabinet report expects it to support about 260 learners a year. Students from Bede Academy and Northumberland Skills will be among the first to move up from the learning hub when it opens, the council said.

What the first phase has done so far

The council’s release says the learning hub has welcomed more than 7,000 learners since 2024. The April Cabinet report breaks down what that included up to then:

  • 62 learners on the Northumberland Skills Level 2 engineering course, with about 70% already in positive destinations two-thirds of the way through
  • 75 students enrolled on Bede Academy’s T Level in engineering since September 2024, with a 100% pass rate last year and 65% going on to apprenticeships or higher education
  • more than 1,000 people trained on short courses, including Global Wind Organisation safety training
  • more than 4,000 STEM sessions with young people

The cost went up by £5.7m

The price has risen since the plan was first approved. In February 2025 Cabinet approved an outline business case at £19,138,406. By April 2026, after tenders came back, the full business case put the cost at £24,868,678, an increase of £5,730,272.

The report gives the reasons as higher tender prices, a longer design stage, inflation, a bigger contingency, and £799,990 of VAT that cannot be recovered. Construction and enabling works alone rose from £13.5m to £18.0m.

The county council’s own share went up from £8,608,462 to £13,487,626. It found the extra £4.88m in two places:

  • £3,879,164 that had been earmarked for a hotel in Blyth town centre
  • £1,000,000 from the Northumberland Growth Fund

The report is blunt about the hotel. It says a hotel under the Future High Streets Fund “has not been possible” because of “scale, site availability and limited operator interest to invest”. The government agreed the grant could be moved, and the council’s matching money has gone to the Institute instead.

The rest of the funding comes from the North East Combined Authority (now the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority), the government’s Town Deal and the Future High Streets Fund. In March 2026 the combined authority agreed to cover the VAT on its £3,999,951 grant. It is also giving £1.5m over three years towards running costs.

Bar chart. Energy Central Institute total cost was £19.14m at the outline business case in February 2025 and £24.87m at the full business case in April 2026. The county council's share rose from £8.61m to £13.49m over the same period.
The Institute's cost and the county council's share, February 2025 and April 2026. Chart by The Northumberland Post
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Will it open on time?

The council’s release says it will open in late 2027. The April report was more cautious. It said courses would begin in September 2026 in existing buildings, as a temporary measure. It called a September 2027 opening “a key target” but said “it is understood that this may not be achieved”. The construction programme then showed practical completion in mid-October 2027.

Main contractor Kier also suggested savings. The biggest, worth about £1.5m, would swap the terracotta cladding and fins planned for the front of the building for a different product. The report says that change would need planning approval.

What it means for you

  • If you are at school or college in south east Northumberland, the Institute is meant to give a route from GCSEs and T Levels to degree-level study without leaving Blyth.
  • If you live or shop in Blyth town centre, expect construction traffic and hoardings beside the Market Place through 2027. The council says the building should bring more people into the centre.
  • If you pay council tax in Northumberland, the council’s contribution is now £13.5m, about half the cost. The report scored the project as “medium” value for money, with a benefit to cost ratio of 1.6 nationally and 1.7 including local effects.

The Institute is part of the £95m Energising Blyth programme. Council leader Glen Sanderson called the groundbreaking “another momentous day in the continuing regeneration of Blyth”. Ian Lavery, MP for Blyth and Ashington, also attended.

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