On Friday December 20, ahead of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) cabinet meeting,
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has sat down with the Local Democracy Reporting Service to talk about all things Teesside and beyond.
When it came to other mayors and the new Labour government, Conservative Mayor Houchen explained he had become more engaged with fellow mayors recently. “I think historically I’ve certainly just kind of got on with my own thing and kept my distance, but it’s also really positive to see actually, at a national government level, the likes of Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner in particular, have been really positive, they’ve been really engaging,” he explained.
“They’ve shared lots of information that interestingly, in effect, as an opposition party politician, you would be surprised that they would share with us confidentially… from a national government point of view, it’s been at the much higher end of my expectations of how they would deal with us, given that we have a Conservative mayor and a Labour government, and hopefully that continues.”
He thought that the devolution white paper, published earlier in December, was positive. “This government is clearly pro-mayor, they are engaging with me in the exact same way that they are the other mayors, the devolution white paper shows that we are going to benefit just as much as anywhere else.”
Mayor Houchen shared the latest on CRSTS2, the near £1bn transport funding package that was signed off by the previous government and is currently under review. The ongoing spending review is due to be released in June. He said: “Some of that money has been released already, a relatively small amount, but low millions of pounds have been released to allow us to, in effect, start that work.”
He outlined that there are three potential outcomes from the spending review, potentially receive none of the money “which I think is highly unlikely”, rather that it was a “coin toss” between the Tees Valley receiving the full £978m and receiving a reduced amount.
Child poverty
On child poverty, it was put to Mayor Houchen that the Tees Valley had one of the highest child poverty levels in the country. A report last year cited that nearly 50,000 children lived in poverty across the combined authority. North East Combined Authority Mayor Kim McGuinness’ plans to tackle child poverty were highlighted and Mayor Houchen was asked if he had any similar plans.
He said: “Everything we do, is to benefit the region, and this idea, that what we’re doing is not to try and tackle the deprivation and poverty in the region misunderstands the basics of politics and also the basics of what we’re trying to do here. The problem you’ve got with Teesside is that because it’s been ignored and neglected at least since the 1960s…
“When I was elected, the evidence on the ground is that [tinkering around the edges] doesn’t move the dial, that doesn’t tackle the intrinsic, fundamental problems of what we have of 40/50 years of neglect and decline and governments of both colours ignoring our region. So when I came in, if you are going to shake up an area like Teesside, if you are still going to try and compete with the likes of Manchester and London, and actually internationally… you have to improve the economy, how do you improve peoples’ lives?
“You give them money, what’s the best way to give people money? You create jobs and put money in their pockets. So if you’re creating thousands and thousands of jobs, good well paid jobs, that are significantly above the national average wage, and you’re giving jobs and opportunities to people that haven’t had jobs and opportunities for decades, that’s how you solve poverty.”
He said that this was the alternative to simply going after the “symptoms” of poverty. “When people walk outside their front door and they see positivity, they see opportunity, they see jobs, they see a place where the economy is progressing, from adults down to little children, it creates aspiration”, he asserted.
“The proof is in the pudding, and you can look at this, it’s official statistics from the ONS, since I was elected in May 2017, the employment rate in the Tees Valley has gone up by 5.4%”, he added that this was a significantly higher rate than the rest of the UK and the rest of the North East. Analysis on employment trends in the Tees Valley since Ben Houchen became Mayor in 2017 was conducted in 2024.
Teesworks
Another big story of the year was the Tees Valley Review, which looked into Teesworks and was published at the beginning of 2024 and found no corruption or illegality but said decisions taken by bodies involved had not met expected standards when managing public funds. Mayor Houchen was asked whether he thought the average person in the Tees Valley cared about this, his answer was a certain “no they don’t”.
He highlighted his re-election success as a sign that people rejected what he called Labour’s attempt at a “referendum on Teesworks… I was re-elected, actually with a bigger majority than I thought I was going to get, I was re-elected with the third largest share of the vote of any mayor in the country.” He added that with the benefit of hindsight, the general election results showed how “amazing” his result in May was.
Within the Tees Valley Review, there was also discussion of “perceived conflicts of interest” and this had resulted in changes at the top of the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), however Mayor Houchen remains both chair of TVCA and STDC. When asked what his reasoning was for this, he said: “The development corporation is my project, and it gives more political accountability to have the directly elected mayor as the chairman of the public body.”
Mayor Houchen was asked if it was worth the pushback from people who take issue with this stance, to which he responded that there are half a dozen individuals who “concentrate on this and think it is important, the general public know me, I advertise every single thing I do, every decision I take, everything that we’re doing on that site. Normal people, the general public, don’t care.”
‘The decision to get rid of Boris Johnson was short-sighted’
Lord Houchen is the sole Conservative regional mayor in England and was re-elected shortly before the July wipe-out for Conservative MPs. Asked whether the Conservative Party would have fared better in the 2024 General Election had Boris Johnson still been leader, he said: “Yes, I do. I think the decision to get rid of Boris was short-sighted, I thought there were a lot of people in the parliamentary party who had never been through a difficult time, because politics can be difficult at times and they overreacted, they got too skittish.”
He said Kemi Badenoch’s (the new Conservative Party leader) biggest challenge is “that she needs to find a way to connect with the public, so that we’re even being listened to.”
He highlighted the first big challenge will be the May 2025 local elections, “that will, if it doesn’t go well, will probably cause some jitters within the Conservative Party, but I don’t think we are going to do particularly well in May, given the last time those seats were contested was 2021, we were on a high, it was Boris, it was the Covid bounce”, he explained.
Teesside Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.
Through the app, we’ll send you the latest breaking news, top stories, exclusives and much more straight to your phone.
To join our community group, you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Teesside Live team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Click here to join our WhatsApp community.
For a North East politics and regional affairs digest direct to your inbox, go here to sign up to the free Northern Agenda newsletter