Confidence attracts confidence- Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen.
Mayor’ s rallying call heralds a region on the rise
A REGION BUILT ON
BELIEF
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen( Conservative) reflects on a former underdog that’ s ready to roar
Power base- Darlington Economic Campus.
There ' s nothing wrong with being an underdog. As a lifelong fan of
Middlesbrough FC, I ' ve come to see it as something quite noble. There ' s a certain character that comes with backing the side that isn ' t expected to win and in proving people wrong.
For a long time, it was a description that fitted our region fairly well.
The thing is, for many people outside Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool, that ' s still the picture they have of us.
For decades, too many people wrote us off. Investment went elsewhere, decisions were taken elsewhere, expectations were lowered and our success was treated as the exception rather than the rule.
After the collapse of the SSI steelworks, near Redcar, in 2015, many people genuinely questioned what the future held for our area. It made sense to think of ourselves as an underdog.
But I think we ' re fast approaching the point where we need to retire that label.
It’ s not because all our problems have been solved. Clearly, they haven’ t. I ' m
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