Reality Bites

for Houchen as

He Steps Down

as Chair of

Development

Corporations       

STDC Board Meeting, 4 April 2025

Scott Hunter

13 April 2025

Barely a week after he reassured the board of South Tees Development Corporation that the government’s Best Value Notice would impact very little on their work, Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, announces that he is to step down as chair not only of that board, but also from the boards of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough Development Corporations as well. Are the Best Value measures starting to take effect? It appears so.



This was reported by the BBC (Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen to step down from MDC chair roles) on 11 April. A couple of days earlier, on 9 April, (TVCA to 'reflect' on mayoral conflict of interest guidance - BBC News) Houchen had declined to comment on this when approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) journalist, Daniel Hodgson. Hodgson points out Houchen’s chairing of development corporations was identified as a potential conflict of interest in the Tees Valley Review, published in January 2024. But the report omits one key piece of information.

Houchen has now stated that he will step down from these roles when they come up for renewal at the AGM in June. Which means that in June 2024, when the roles would also have come up for renewal, six months after publication of the Tees Valley Review, and while the TVCA was preparing its response to it, Houchen did not feel the need to resign. Why? Because, as we reported earlier (teesside-freeport-welcomes-its-first-freeloader), Houchen, at that time, appeared to think he was still untouchable.

Unfinished Business

As regards conflicts of interest, there are a few that are still to be resolved. Again, as we have observed previously, the fact that acting TVCA CEO, Tom Bryant, is a director of Teesside Airport and of its holding company, Goosepool 2019. The existence of bogus charity, Teesside Airport Foundation diminishes the transparency in the airport’s affairs. The Chief Operating Officer of STDC, John Barnes, has extensive shared business interests with Martin Corney, making him an unsuitable STDC representative on the board of Teesworks Ltd.

Ducking and Diving

There was a curious episode during the STDC board meeting on 4 April. This was a rescheduled meeting as the one the previous week had been inquorate. Two people who attended the original meeting were the LDRS reporter, Daniel Hodgson, and Ray Casey. When the meeting was deemed inquorate, they were asked to leave by the Monitoring Officer.

Come 4 April, and at the end of the (short) meeting, Houchen announced that a decision had been taken the previous week using emergency procedures as the matter had to be dealt with urgently. We have no idea what that matter was, only that it was discussed and passed at a meeting that supposedly hadn’t taken place. At least two people have since made complaints about this to the STDC, on the grounds that, as a meeting actually took place, the public should not have been excluded. Given the Corporation’s well-deserved reputation for secrecy, such actions always arouse suspicion.

Something else for those overseeing the Best Value Notice to take a look at.