It is possible to hold two thoughts in your head at the same time.
This is something I found myself saying a number of times throughout 2024 and so it seems appropriate to start 2025 with that thought.
This year represents a great opportunity for my constituency of Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, the wider Teesside region and the North East.
The first six months of a Labour government have brought some monumental changes which will be transformative for our country including the New Deal for Working People and bringing our railways back into public ownership – two policies I’m proud of progressing while a member of the shadow cabinet.
And while the government moves its agenda forward to improve the lives of working people across the United Kingdom, we can also look at matters closer to home which can be transformative here.
One of the biggest opportunities we have here on Teesside – a once in a lifetime opportunity – is the development of Teesworks.
Teesworks
Almost six years ago to the day – January 24, 2019 – I address this issue in an article in which I wrote: “Undoubtedly, there is not only a great opportunity to bring manufacturing and industrial jobs back to Teesside there is a real imperative that we do so and the wealth that is to be created has to benefit the people of the Tees Valley.”
That has always been my position and remains so. The wealth created by Teesworks, paid for by the people of the Tees Valley already to the tune of more than half a billion pounds to remediate the land, should belong to us all.
But what has happened instead is that Lord Houchen of High Leven has allowed 90% of Teesworks to be taken over by private sector businessmen for less than £100. Just think about that.
It is my firm belief that Teesworks could and should be a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Teesside.
A lesson from history
We have the perfect lesson from history which handily you can see from the Teesworks site – the North Sea.
In the late 1960s when oil was discovered in the North Sea it was split between the UK and Norway. In the 1970s UK Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan described it as “God’s gift to the British economy”. Meanwhile the Norwegian government laid down the principle that oil should be used to progress a “qualitatively better society”.
So far so good. Then in 1979 the UK elected Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister and so the country was given over to the entirely wrong-headed obsession with free market economics.
BP and Britoil were privatised and so the people of the UK, unlike Norway, have not seen the benefit of striking oil.
Norway has retained 70% public ownership of its oil and as a result its Sovereign Wealth Fund, an investment arm for a “qualitatively better society”, now stands at about £1.5trillion – the biggest in the world. It is protected from short term political needs and instead the income from the fund is directed into welfare such as education and health.
Imagine
Imagine what Teesworks as a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Teesside could have done for our area.
Instead Lord Houchen has created a Sovereign Wealth Fund for two already wealthy businessmen – and unlikeI Thatcher he hasn’t even got a capital receipt that can be used in the short term.
That is completely unforgiveable regardless of whether you would be in agreement with Jim Callaghan or Margaret Thatcher.
Indeed the scathing Tees Valley Report, which looked into the Tees Valley Combined Authority and South Tees Development Corporation’s governance and development of Teesworks agreed the deal was not in the public interest. Instead it said the TVCA should “renegotiate a better settlement for taxpayers under the joint venture agreement”.
Late last year saw the announcement from the Labour Government for Net Zero Teesside -the single biggest investment in Teesside in our history. It is worth £4bn, will create 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 well paid permanent jobs and will make our area leaders in the industries of the future. The importance of this announcement cannot be overstated. Just as we have led the industries of the past with iron and steel, we now look forward with optimism to our future as a global leader in clean technologies.
My final words in that aforementioned article six years ago were “So let us all move on with the singular focus on bringing prosperity to the people of Tees Valley”.
That is as true today as it was then and remains my guiding principle. I am 100% supportive of bringing jobs and new industry to Teesworks, even with the mistakes that have been made it can still be transformative for our area and we must all support investment in Teesside wholeheartedly.
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