This Is Tees Valley This Is Tees Valley - Issue 1 2020 | Page 14

WORDS: JOANNE BARRETT
PICTURES: MARTIN WALKER
TIME FOR
A
TEES
Tees Valley is ready for the
world, says mayor Ben
sk Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen
what makes the region so special
and his answer is a ready one.
Ready and lengthy.
To anyone who lives and works in the area
already, the virtues of the Tees Valley are
evident on a personal and professional level.
Ben, who became the area’s first directly
elected mayor in May 2017, can speak
confidently on both.
A born and bred Teessider, he has lived
and worked in the area all of his life, except
for a brief spell at uni, and shouting loud and
proud about the Tees Valley is part of his job.
Skills, work ethic, the facilities we have
right on our doorstep in terms of industry
and business potential as well as our history
and heritage and depth of knowledge, he
believes, set us apart from all the rest.
“Our skill base, the heritage we have here,
the work ethic,” says Ben. “One thing I can
confidently say about people here is that they
are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
“If you look at where we are in terms
of geographical location alone, we have a
deep river port which is right on shipping
channels, industrial land and an industrial
heritage left to us largely by companies such
as ICI and British Steel.
“Large international investors are coming
to Teesside and enquiring about us. That’s a
huge step forward for us and we have got to
grasp that.
“The next two years will be pivotal – we
don’t want to be looking back in ten years
and saying, ‘What if...'”
As mayor, Ben represents almost 700,000
people across the five Tees Valley boroughs
of Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on
Tees, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland.
As chairman of the Tees Valley Combined
Authority, he has a £588m fund to drive
economic growth in the area with a plan to
deliver 25,000 new jobs by 2026.
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So far, his record of delivery has included
some huge projects, not least a plan to
turn around the performance of Teesside
International Airport, bringing it back into
public ownership and launching more and
new passenger routes.
There’s also the South Tees Development
Corporation set up to get the site of the
former steelworks at Redcar ready for
redevelopment. He has also made a pledge to
bring steelmaking back to Teesside, restoring
the region’s place as a world leader in the
industry.
Interestingly, the site plans also include
creating the world’s first industrial scale
carbon capture and storage project - plans
that will see Teesside become the first net
zero cluster in the UK if they come to
fruition.
Ambitions are certainly big – and Ben
firmly believes the region has the skills to
deliver. The biggest thing the Tees Valley has
going for it, he believes, is the sheer scale of
opportunity.
So, what would his message be to potential
investors?
“Investors are interested in the hard-nosed
detail; they are spending hundreds, if not
thousands of millions of pounds.
“They want to know about land prices -
and land prices here are quite cheap, which
puts us ahead of the market compared to
everybody else.
“Big industrial sites, connectivity, a deep
river and port, airport, all those things are
extremely important to them.
“Our skills base is in the top three. If you
are going to bring investment, people have to
have skills.
“We can tick all of those boxes.”
The Tees Valley was a driving force in
the industrial revolution and historically,
the area has been linked to heavy industry
– particularly iron and steel. Some of the
structures designed, built and made on
Teesside among the world’s biggest and most
iconic developments.
Most Teessiders will point you to the
Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was built by
Middlesbrough company Dorman Long in
1932.
More recently, though, says Ben,
companies like Darlington-based Cleveland
Bridge were involved in the design and
fabrication of The Shard in London, they
also supplied and erected the steel gates
and installed the machinery on the Thames
Barrier, the world’s largest movable flood
barrier.
As a region, says Ben, we have a tendency
to work hard and forget to shout about the
amazing things the Tees Valley can do.
Another example he gives is a
Middlesbrough company working on the
development of the incredibly popular
Minecraft gaming phenomenon.
“I know there are some people within our
area who don’t appreciate what we have here.
Many people have made capital talking us
down and that seeps into the local psyche.
“When I tell local people, they look at
you in disbelief but are then quite proud.
Negativity seeps into the psyche. If we can’t
speak positively about ourselves, we can’t
expect people to do it for us.
“Do I think Sadiq Khan (mayor of
London), when he’s on his travels to
countries around the world, will be talking
about Teesside? No, he’ll be talking up
London.
“We have got to speak up about the
fantastic things that we do.”