Teesdale a Â£350m development, which is home to companies such as Abbey National, Barclaycard and Churchill Insurance, comprises extensive housing schemes, prestigious office buildings, canal waterways and the Stockton Campus of the University of Durham. This transformation of the former industrial wasteland on the banks of the River Tees is due largely to the development of the Tees Barrage, which produced a ten mile non-tidal freshwater section of waterway. It is now Tees Valleys premier office and living environment.