Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen held his second Mayor’s Question Time session at Mowden Park Rugby Club in Darlington on 18 March. Most people decided to stay at home and watch Newcastle United getting thrashed 7 – 2 by Barcelona. But a handful of us didn’t.
Start the clock
Chris Lloyd of the Northern Echo was compere for the evening. Here’s my report on the proceedings, neatly summarized into the 30 most inaccurate statements made by Ben Houchen over 110 minutes on Wednesday evening.
Inaccuracy #1
Oh, no, not Parmos, surely? Chris started by asking about Ben’s bid to get Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status for the Teesside Parmo in 2017. But, thanks to the hardline Brexit that Houchen championed, the UK got kicked out of the PDO scheme, and it was replaced by the lame Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG), which nobody has ever heard of. ‘Blame Brexit’ chuckled Ben about the Parmo fail, conveniently ignoring the inconvenient truth that he was, and remains, a champion of the very Brexit that torpedoed the PDO status of the Parmo.
Inaccuracy #2
Chris asked Ben about his January 2024 promise to build a new general hospital in Teesside. No ifs, no buts, no maybes. Cast iron.
Ben: “People will have seen the drawn-out process we’ve had with trying to get a meeting with the government to talk about the plan and the serious nature in which we can progress with rebuilding or building a new North Tees Hospital. I’m pleased to say, albeit slightly sceptical, there is currently a date in the diary meeting with the Secretary of State after whatever it is, 13, 14, 15 requests…etc etc etc…this waffle went on for TEN MINUTES.
A promise doesn’t come with a maybe, Ben
Inaccuracy #3
Chris: “You wanted to build a garden village in Skerningham in Darlington in 2017. Is that still the case?”
Ben: “Yes. Darlington Council has a local plan, which is key as to where Skerningham Garden Village should and shouldn’t go. …if we tell the Department for Transport (DfT) that we want to build this big road (around the outskirts of Darlington), they’ll say no; build the road through the middle, because you’ve already designated that in planning. The council has already approved it.”
Is the wrong answer. Darlington Council specifically approved a development that did NOT have a road running through the middle of it, knowing that the Planning Inspectorate wouldn’t have approved of such a scheme. So why would the DfT then insist that Darlington Council build a road through the middle of Skerningham?
Inaccuracy #4
On to railways now, and Ben’s success in creating new platforms, and speeding up services, at Darlington railway station coming up in May 2026, five months later than planned.
Ben: “So the simple concept was if you have platform one with the Saltburn train here, instead of cutting across it, you stop and you just park next to it. So if you don’t cut across it, then you don’t conflict”
In plain English, this means that local trains won’t conflict with national ones anymore. Except that this isn’t going to happen. With Ben’s Houchen’s knowledge, the TVCA saved money by only installing one ‘through’ platform instead of two, and not building the necessary switches north of the station. These would have allowed services to and from Bishop Auckland to use the new platforms. So the local trains will continue to conflict with the national ones, and there are no plans to change this.
Inaccuracy #5
Chris: “In 2017 you promised to create 20,000 high-quality jobs at Teesworks by 2035. So where are you with that number?”
Ben: “Well I’m not aware of the updated number but I know the official report we had 18 months/two years ago showed just over 10,000 collective jobs.”
Well we have got the updated number, Ben. There are some temporary construction jobs as Net Zero Teesside ramps up. But in terms of high-quality, permanent jobs, there are 350 at the SeAH factory. And even those jobs aren’t secure. And maybe another 100 at South Bank Quay. That’s it. And, last time I checked, 450 isn’t close to 10,000.
But they’re well-paid, right?
And as for high-quality jobs? Wages in South Teesside, where Teesworks is based, have fallen even further behind the national average than when Ben Houchen became Tees Valley Mayor in May 2017. Wages in South Teesside are now £700 per month below the UK average.
Inaccuracy #6
Ben: “We have agreements with Exxon with sustainable aviation fuel”.
Teesside has never produced a drop of aviation fuel, and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future.
Inaccuracy #7
Ben: “There’s still some really interesting hydrogen developments”.
All three of Teesside’s three major hydrogen projects, Hygreen, H2Teesside and H2NorthEast have been cancelled.
Inaccuracy #8
Ben: “We’ve got some battery storage projects”
Teesside’s only significant Battery Energy Storage System, the Teesside Gigapark, hasn’t applied for planning permission yet. It’s years away.
Inaccuracy #9
Ben: “Those two investors alone (SeAH and NZT), that is more than £7bn of capital investment.”
The SeAH investment is £900mn and the NZT investment is £4bn. That’s £4.9bn not £7bn.
Inaccuracy #10
Ben: “We’ll have more than 500 people or more working on the (Redcar) site than when the steelworks closed in 2015”
Well 3,000 people worked at the steelworks at the time it closed. In terms of permanent full time jobs, NZT will employ 150 – 200 people. If the data centres get built, and this is far from guaranteed, they’ll employ perhaps 500 people. So, a maximum of 700 jobs versus 3,500 in 2015.
Inaccuracy #11
Ben: “Yeah, independent reports have shown that Teesworks (Joint Venture, allocated 90% to property developers) is value for money.”
There are no such independent reports. But there is a lot of independent reporting that it isn’t value for money. Here, for example.
Inaccuracy #12
Ben: “We moved a whole load of liabilities from the public sector onto the private sector”.
No liabilities were moved from the public sector onto the private sector. Victoria Derbyshire has more details.
Inaccuracy #13
Ben “For example, just this year, STDC repaid the TVCA £14mn”.
Ooh, that’s a schoolboy error Ben. That repayment of £14mn applies to NEXT YEAR, 2026/27. But THIS YEAR it’s only £4mn, remember? That’s because, until your finance chief Jo Moore uncovered it, there was an arrangement for the STDC to take a ‘holiday’ on its interest payments. And you should remember this arrangement, because you signed off on it. An excerpt from Jo’s report to the 11 September 2025 meeting of the STDC board is shown below. Full details of the report can be found here:
…but it’s worse than that
But even that £14mn repayment is in doubt. At the 20 March 2026 TVCA Cabinet meeting, Jo Moore warned that the potential for the STDC to fail to make this payment represents the most significant financial risk that the TVCA faces going forward. Jo’s full report can be found here.
….but it’s a lot worse even than that
Ben Houchen’s latest panic move is to rescue the STDC from insolvency by plundering £100mn from the TVCA. This cash part of £1bn meant to be allocated to transport projects over the next four years. Those with long memories will recall that this is the same £1bn that Houchen promised to spend on 15 January 2024 as part of his re-election campaign.
.Inaccuracy #14
Ben: “That (business rate income) goes up significantly over the next few years”.
Redcar and Cleveland Council, which shares business rate income with the STDC, has just had to downwardly revise its expected business rate income from Teesworks by £30mn.
Inaccuracy #15
Ben: “Sadiq Khan, who comes to me for advice on how to set up the Oxford Street Development Corporation, and Andy Burnham talks to me about how we’ve done it”.
Are Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham in the room with you now, Ben?
Inaccuracy #16
Ben: “I am confident in saying that the first small modular (nuclear) reactors in the country will be built on Teesside”.
This is speculation, built on nothing but Teesside exceptionalism. There are numerous bidders in the running throughout the UK. Ben Houchen’s claim is impossible to verify.
Inaccuracy #17
Ben: “So we could still have (Hartlepool) nuclear power station, all right, not at full capacity, six, seven, eight years’ time”.
Hartlepool’s existing extension expires in March 2028. I wouldn’t bet the house on another six years. And how would you fact-check such a statement anyway?
Inaccuracy #18
Jonathan, a member of the public, asked about the immediate danger posed by the decaying North Tees Hospital, built in 1968. – “When you started talking about the hospital, I thought I should ask this: So, I would say that the urgency to replace it is even greater than ever. I was there when the fixed asset survey was done. I’m really worried it becoming not just a major maintenance issue. So do you have a team, have you looked into this in great detail, or was what you were saying just the beginnings of an idea?”
Ben: “Like I said, we floated the idea with the financial team in the health department a number of years ago, so we knew there were some legs in it. But we can’t get into the minutiae of what the financial structure looks like until, for example, is it a one point plan, or is it a five billion pound facility….etc etc etc”
To answer your question directly, Jonathan, Ben’s ‘plan’ to replace North Tees Hospital is the concept of a plan.
Inaccuracy #19
A question from William in the audience: “I’m a volunteer at North Tees Hospital. So the NHS is the biggest employer in Europe, around 1.5mn employees. So the way North Tees is kind of crumbling, you know, for example, the last couple of years. In the last month or so, the lifts in the main building have been broken. It takes ten minutes just to get to your ward. How are nurses going to be motivated to stay?”
Ben: “Let’s be frank, if you take a step back, as the gentleman said at the back, and as Chris said, you go back to 2007, 2008 with the hospital that we needed and the approval by Andy Burnham and then it was re-approved by Jeremy Hunt just after the election in 2010 etc etc etc”.
Sorry, William, Ben can’t help here.
Inaccuracy #20
A question from Scott in the audience: “How are things progressing with the solar farm at Teesside Airport? The one that you announced two and a half years ago in September 2023?”
Ben: “I believe in the coming weeks a preferred operator will be chosen and that work will start” I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Scott: “The initial solar farm deal with SSE was described as a joint venture. Is this correct?”
Ben: “The first deal didn’t get as far as procurement”
Indeed.
Inaccuracy #21
A question from Michael in the audience: “Just a quick one about the train station at Teesside Airport. Is there any chance that’s going to reopen in the future?”
Ben: “The part that the TVCA is responsible for was delivered on time. And then anything you do on the railway line, locally or nationally, has to be done by Network Rail And this sounds like a very typical politician’s answer of “it’s not our fault…””
We’ll take that as a ‘no’.
Inaccuracy #22
Back to Chris, the host: “The Tees Valley has just lost out in that major funding round, partly to do with the issue of the Best value Notice (BVN). I just wonder what personal responsibility you take for that, and how accountable you feel, because effectively our area has lost a lot of money. You know, the Ridgwell report (Tees Valley Review report), 28 recommendations, particularly regarding the Teesworks Joint Venture”
Ben: “Because of the noise and the lies that were spread by Andy McDonald at the time when he stood up in Parliament and defamed me and two private individuals etc etc etc”
If it hadn’t been for that meddling Andy Macdonald.
Inaccuracy #23
Question from Scott “There is also the matter of the external auditor rejecting your accounts, which doesn’t appear to have been resolved yet. Or has it?”
Ben: “This issue affects lots of public authorities across the country. I’m not down-playing it.” You just did. “But it’s in the process of being resolved”. That doesn’t answer the question “But I don’t expect the BVN to be lifted soon”. Well, that does.
Inaccuracy #24
Ben: “If you’re not already clear, follow me on social media because it irritates some people how optimistic and positive we are about the area”
Good luck with that. Those very people, most of whom are Ben Houchen’s constituents, have been blocked by Houchen on social media for the slightest challenge or criticism.
Inaccuracy #25
Chris: “What’s happening with Middlesbrough Development Corporation (MDC)?”
Ben: “Some people in the room suggest that maybe (MDC) should be disbanded?” Whoever can he mean? “But the problem with the MDC is Middlesbrough Council. You cannot deal with them on planning”
But the MDC’s planning isn’t done by the council. It’s outsourced to a private company called Lichfields. Whose fees were so excessive that finance chief Jo Moore had to put a cap on them. And the biggest MDC fail of them all, Gresham, happened despite the council trying to help the MDC by giving it land.
Inaccuracy #26
Question from Josh: “Baroness Grey-Thompson told me that she believes there’s a postcode lottery in terms of Special Educational Needs (SEN) Funding. Only 2 in 100 children with SEN achieve a GCSE pass in English or Maths. Do you have an opinion on SEN funding?”
Ben: I don’t want to get political on it…But I think we’ll see another very significant rebellion from the Labour Party against its own administration, as it did with the first round of benefits reforms”
So you do want to get political on it. This is the very definition of getting political on it.
Inaccuracy #27
Chris: “Why haven’t you joined Reform UK?”
Ben: “I did go and have lunch with Nigel Farage. He invited me, he wanted me to go over to Reform. I did tell Kemi (Badenoch, they’re buddies, see?). But at their heart, Reform is basically the SDP.”
What? One of the great Conservative ‘gurus’ of our time thinks that Nigel Farage is on the same wing as Shirley Williams and David Steel? Give your head a shake.
Inaccuracy #28
Ben: “I’m a very loyal person”.
Except when it comes to throwing two of your senior ‘statutory’ officer colleagues, Emma Simson and Gary Macdonald, under the bus when the TVCA got issued with a Best Value Notice by the MHCLG.
Inaccuracies #29 and #30
The subject didn’t crop up at this Q and A, but no Ben Houchen inaccuracy compilation would be complete without the promise that he’s broken TWICE. Yes, as part of his 2021 reelection campaign, postponed from 2020 due to COVID, Ben Houchen promised to bring steelmaking back to Teesside. This, or course, was his ‘Electric Arc lark.’
Is there an echo around here?
But he outdid himself by repeating the same promise again in January 2024, as part of his next reelection campaign. More than two years after this, there’s still no Electric Arc Furnace for Teesside, and the chances of there ever being one are diminishing rapidly.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime
Apropos of absolutely nothing, in January 2026, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Luke Myer put forward an amendment to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill,also known as the Hillsborough Law. Luke’s amendment calls for a legal duty of candour on public authorities. The bill is still on its way through Parliament.
