The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has issued a Best Value Notice (BVN) to the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) led by Ben Houchen.
It’s a trap
The TVCA came under scrutiny by the previous Conservative government when Michael Gove, the minister in charge of what was known as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, (which is now the MHCLG led by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner) ordered a review into it alongside the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) which has been given over £560mn of public funds to develop the former Redcar Steelworks site. This became known as the Tees Valley Review.
Value for money who?
There have been long standing concerns over the public body and its use of public funds achieving value for money. More recently its external auditors were also unable to provide assurances over value for money being achieved.
Land giveaway
It was reported in Private Eye News that land on the old Redcar Steelworks site, now known as Teesworks, that was in public ownership had been sold to private businessmen for £1 an acre. Most reasonable people can see this does not meet the value for money threshold. Especially considering the land was immediately flipped and said businessmen made a profit of £75mn when Macquarie Global Services Ltd took out a lease on it. More details about the deal can be found in Tees Valley Monitor here.
Nothing to see here
The review also found that there was a lack of transparency and scrutiny and at certain points the Mayor, Ben Houchen, was signing off his own proposals without any input from the Overview and Scrutiny committee.
One doth protest too much
The lack of transparency comes as no surprise to anyone who has sent questions to the TVCA. Just last week Mayor Houchen branded the public ‘idiots’ for doing so. You can view the video of this here.
Scrutiny of the highest order
And so, the MHCLG has finally issued a BVN to the authority. This comes after a Whitehall report recommended that the National Audit Office should intervene. For that to happen Mayor Houchen would have to invite them in to look at the books, which he has publicly said was not needed, even though he did invite them in himself a year prior. That was under Michael Gove’s control and a cynic could assume he was only doing it because he knew it would not happen. An authority cannot refuse a BVN which will see Ben Houchen placed under tight scrutiny by the government.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
