I dreamed a dream
The origins of the development corporations in the UK can be traced back through more than five decades of neo-liberal opposition to the so-called ‘welfare state’ and the post-war Keynesian consensus. Margaret Thatcher started swinging the demolition ball in 1979 and the influence of these ultras has since continued to grow stronger with, for example, the publication of ‘The Sovereign Individual’ by William Rees Mogg and James Dale Davison 1997, and through to the amoral self-serving greed of Rishi Sunak. Charter Cities and Freeports are the next phase, and Ben Houchen’s Teesside, with a freeport and three development corporations, is the guinea pig for the next phase, which may well be the corporatist destruction of the nation state and civic society itself.
But keep it local
In Hartlepool, the first serious moves towards the 2019 local elections, when the Labour party lost control to a coalition of Conservatives and Independents. As often, the ‘Independents’ proved to be nothing of the sort. Four months after the election, eight of them defected to the Brexit party, who took over joint control of the council with the Conservative party. In June 2020, in a move reminiscent of later moves orchestrated by Ben Houchen at the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) and the South Tees Development Corporation, a secret meeting of Hartlepool Council abolished the role of Chief Executive and replaced it with a Managing Director in the shape of their former Director of Regeneration, Denise McGuckin. McGuckin was also appointed as Returning Officer, in charge of elections. Both of these roles are usually considered to be apolitical, but it soon became clear that the Conservatives seemed determined to throw away these norms.
Not even hiding it now
A year after her appointment, McGuckin won the National 2021 ‘Lack of self-awareness’ Award when she complained to the Local Government Chronicle that UK politics had become too tribal. McGuckin demonstrated her concern for neutrality in May 2022 when, hours before the polls opened for the local elections, she put out a Facebook post praising the Conservative mayor Ben Houchen. A blatant breach of both ‘purdah’ rules and the political neutrality of the Returning Officer. Don’t get too tribal, whatever you do.
The coup is complete
On 25 January, Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove and Ben Houchen announced the founding of the Hartlepool and Middlesbrough development corporations. The first development corporation of the modern era in Teesside, the South Tees Development Corporation, had been created on 1 August 2017, within weeks of Ben Houchen’s first election as Tees Valley Mayor. The HDC deal included £10 million in ‘pump prime funding’. Can anyone explain what this gobbledygook means?
Boutique hotel
In case anyone was wondering, the HDC is all about property deals, and McGuckin wasted no time in making them. Just a few weeks after setting up the HDC, she took £1.25 million of Hartlepool council taxpayers money and gave it to property dealer Jomast to refurbish their own building, the Wesley Chapel, into a boutique hotel, something badly needed in a town with one of the worst childhood poverty rates in the UK. The Wesley Chapel is in the HDC Area, obviously, which is nice. So which other assets are you handing over to the HDC?
Map maker’s nightmare
The map of the HDC is similar to that of Teesside Freeport, in that it seems to consist of random exclaves tagged on to the main body of the HDC for no apparent reason. To confuse matters still further, you’ll notice that Hartlepool also contains three exclaves of Teesside Freeport, so there are now six separate parts of the town which fall within the purview of Ben Houchen’s private fiefdom. In the case of the HDC, there are two exclaves – Oakesway Industrial Estate and Queens Meadow Business Park.
Oakesway Industrial Estate
Yes it’s actually Oakesway not Oaksway, so Ben Houchen loses the spelling bee yet again, but Oakesway has seen better days, and at first seems a strange choice for inclusion in the HDC Area. Tenants include a Dodgeball Centre ‘believed to be the first of its kind in the world’. And probably the last, as this 21st Century take on Biblical stoning is unlikely to set the world on fire. Also on site is the thriving VFM Windows, although according to Companies House, VFM went into liquidation nearly five years ago. But Oakesway contains vast swathes of very cheap under-developed land, and that’s catnip to Ben Houchen’s property developer cronies
Queens Meadow Business Park
So Ben, it’s the Queens Meadow Business Park not the Queens Meadow Industrial Estate. You may claim a connection with the town by bragging about how your uncle once managed Hartlepool United Football Club, but you don’t seem to know the place as well as you say. So, what’s the attraction here? You guessed it. Land, and lots of it, most of it occupying a section of the former site of Hartlepool South steelworks, this part being unoccupied since 1975.
A new hospital for Hartlepool?
There’s plenty of land available at either Oakesway or Queens Meadow to build the new general hospital that Ben Houchen promised before the 2 May election. Although the residents of Stockton-on-Tees, where the current hospital is located, would be furious if it was built in Hartlepool. So the new hospital is going to be built in Stockton, right? Well I hope that hasn’t double-talked his Hartlepool voters into thinking that they were going to get the hospital.
Hartlepool United Football Club
Houchen has exciting plans for the football club too, but disappointingly he doesn’t tell us what they are. Former club manager Kevin Phillips isn’t so excited about the plans though, as chairman Raj Singh unceremoniously and inexplicably sacked him at the end of April. Raj Singh himself doesn’t seem too enthused by Houchen’s plans either, as he’s been trying to sell the club for over a year.
Houchen goes for the treble
The property deals continue apace. Three sites on Raby Road enter the story. First, the Odeon cinema is to be purchased, demolished and converted into apartments and houses. It’s Grade II listed, but I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you how that problem will be dealt with. Houchen intends to spend £11 million of his £10 million ‘pump prime funding’ cash on this. I’m not sure whether the maths are stacking up here. Further down the road, the Mill Hill leisure centre is to be relocated to Hartlepool Marina, freeing up more land in the HDC Area for apartments and housing. A pattern is emerging. The third building on Raby Road is the Engineer’s Club, which mysteriously went on fire on 30 April 2024. If the club needs to be demolished, it, along with its huge car park, will free more HDC Area land for…. Well, you can see where I’m going with this.
Civic virtue
Houchen intends to convert most of Hartlepool Civic Centre into apartments and retail units, although I’d wager that McGuckin’s office will be safe. The new retail units in the Civic Centre will be competing against the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre just across the other side of Victoria Road. The HDC bought Middleton Grange in February, so Hartlepool council taxpayers can now financially support retailers on either side of Victoria Road while they cannibalise each other’s businesses. Quite why the HDC would invest in a dying 1970s shopping mall hasn’t been explained. But, as usual, construction contractors are about to benefit from contracts for £1.4 million in repairs that have already been identified. Will more expensive repair contracts be available soon? My guess is that they will.
Democratic control of the HDC Board
May exist at some time in the future. In the meantime, maybe one day we’ll find out the rationale for installing Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner to the board of the HDC. Hearteningly, on 2 May, the good people of Hartlepool told Turner where to go in no uncertain terms in the PCC election, as did the majority of voters in the Tees Valley. The remainder of the HDC board consists of training and construction company executives, who will be able to help out with advice when grants and other handouts become available. But on 2 May the Labour party regained control of Hartlepool Borough Council The new council leader, Brenda Harrison, will be able to remove Mike Young from the HDC board and replace him with somebody who doesn’t nod through every Houchen whim.
A family affair
The HDC needs a marketing assistant to help sell all of those new houses and apartments on Raby Road and Victoria Road. Can we think of someone who would fit the bill? What about Caitlin Gilhespie, NEPO daughter of Julie Gilhespie, CEO of Ben Houchen’s Tees Valley Combined Authority? Always simplify the recruitment process by not advertising for the post externally, and not declaring it on your ‘Conflict of Interests’ form.
I’m grateful to James Waterson for providing additional material for this article
