Lords Debate

Teesworks Audit

House of Lords, 20 March 2024

Scott Hunter

25 March 2024

A debate on the Tees Valley Review took place in the House of Lords on 20 March in which the Labour peer, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage questioned why a full audit of the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) had not been commissioned by the government following the scathing criticisms made of it in the Tees Valley Review.



While this was happening, we carefully searched the video of the chamber for signs of Lord Houchen. We thought he might have taken a particular interest in this, as he was being talked about and it’s not just anybody that can turn up to listen to a debate in the Lords. But Houchen was nowhere to be seen.

Baroness Swinburne, for the government, responded to Baroness Taylor by stating, in fairly blunt terms, that ‘you’ve had all you’re getting. The review was thorough, our demand that Mayor Houchen come up with proposals to address its recommendations is adequate, and, in any case, the review found no evidence of wrong doing’.

Five other speakers who raised related concerns about both the review and the ongoing issues at STDC and Teesworks. All received a similar rebuttal. As far as the government is concerned, it is not a problem that, while Houchen has 28 recommendations to implement, he referred to only a handful of them in the letter he sent to DLUHC on 8 March. It is perfectly reasonable that he should be allocated additional money for town development corporations without local councils being consulted. There is no need to raise the threat of sanctions against him.

Now, setting aside the fact that Baroness Swinburne appears to have read a different review to the one served to the public, which is packed full of examples of wrong doing, and despite the fact that the points raised by peers were highly pertinent, we at TVM, agree with the government here.

Not a phrase we ever thought we would be printing.

On the one hand, we appreciate the efforts of Baroness Taylor to keep up pressure on the government to ensure that Mayor Houchen is properly held to account for his actions. But while we approve of her intentions, the problem is that the STDC is the wrong target.

The right target is the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). It is the TVCA that should rightly be investigated by the NAO, and we suspect that there came a point where the review panel themselves realized this. As they were obliged to focus their attention solely on the STDC they were unable to gain perspective on just how dysfunctional the whole TVCA enterprise is. They were also unable to examine how Teesside Airport, Houchen’s other great project, is equally secretive, expensive, and misgoverned. A full inquiry must cover both the airport and the STDC/Teesworks. A full inquiry must also investigate some of the issues with the operation of the TVCA that have not yet been aired in print. A full inquiry must also consider how the TVCA illustrates the weakness of the model of English devolution. 

An inquiry into STDC would do little more than dip a toe in the waters of (alleged) corruption in the Tees Valley.