As Tees Valley Mayor Lord Ben Houchen celebrates the New Year can he look forward to a better 12 months, from his point of view, than the truly awful 2024 that he has endured? There are signs that he can.
True, he was able to enjoy a re-election victory in May this year, giving him his third term. But that must have been more a relief for him than a cause for celebration: his vote share was slashed from 72% three years earlier to 53%.
Otherwise, it was an annus horribilis from the start, dominated by the independent Tees Valley Review, established by then Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to look into allegations by Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald in the House of Commons of “industrial-scale corruption” at the Teesworks regeneration site at Redcar. The Review published its report in January.
Teesworks is under the aegis of the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) and has received more than £500mn of public funding. But a 90% stake in it was negotiated away to two businessmen.
The Review found that “there are issues of transparency that need to be addressed and a number of decisions taken by the bodies involved [principally STDC and the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), both chaired by Houchen] do not meet the standards expected when managing public funds.”
But crucially it also found “no evidence to support allegations of corruption or illegality.”
These issues were extensively reported by North East Bylines at the time, with the conclusion that just because the Review had found no evidence of corruption did not mean it wasn’t the biggest north east scandal for 50 years.
The Review made 28 recommendations designed to ensure that the systems of governance and finance in TVCA and STDC include “the expected sufficiency of transparency and oversight across the system to evidence value for money.” Measures to implement the recommendations were agreed by the TVCA cabinet in September.
Throughout this process Houchen has carried on almost as if nothing had happened, and now he can cautiously hope that he can put the Teesworks scandal behind him. There are already signs that his rehabilitation has begun, with appearances on mainstream national BBC programmes like Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and Radio 4’s flagship Today programme. Kuenssberg did raise the Teesworks affair with the mayor but briefly, almost perfunctorily. He was not there to be grilled about Teesworks but as a panellist to discuss general political issues.
Ben and Angela
What is more, Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, a guest on the programme, referred to the mayor in apparently friendly terms as “Ben” and did the same in her speech a week later on English devolution, with a reference to “the Investment Zone in Tees Valley turbocharging the digital, creative sectors with Ben.”
Maybe she felt she had to, as she referred to the other metro mayors in similar terms .Or maybe she was just being realistic; after all, Houchen was re-elected in May and the government will have to deal with him for most of its term in office, at least.
In any case, Houchen is starting to look like a normal politician rather than the pariah of the past 12 months.
National Audit Office
There is, however, potentially at least one major hurdle for Houchen to cross before he can achieve that status: a possible investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) into most of his empire, including not just TVCA and STDC but also Teesside Freeport. That is the sting on the tail of the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee’s final report into investment zones and freeports. It says:
“To recognise Teesside Freeport’s flagship status, to address the gravity and breadth of the concerns raised by the Tees Valley Review, to extend scrutiny beyond the limited remit of the Tees Valley Review and to assure the public that taxpayers’ money has been disbursed appropriately and legally, [the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – Angela Rayner] must direct the NAO to scrutinise the expenditure of public funds associated with Teesside Freeport, TVCA and STDC.”
The report was published in April and the government’s response was due by 26 June, when the Conservative government was still in office. It is still awaited. As recently as December 10 the Yorkshire Post reported that ministers were still refusing the commit to an investigation by the NAO.
Teesworks is not just important to Houchen and Tees Valley; it is reputedly the largest brownfield redevelopment site in the UK and central to the government’s plans for greening the economy. No one wants the work there to be disrupted. Besides, the government is relying to a considerable extent on metro mayors to drive its growth agenda. Perhaps that is the worry that is holding up a decision on a NAO investigation.
If ministers do eventually launch a NAO investigation, they could yet spoil Houchen’s New Year after all. If not, he seems on the way to putting his troubles of 2024 behind him.
