What is the Tees Valley?

It comprises the 667,500 people who live in the five council areas of Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, and Redcar and Cleveland. Historically, the River Tees has been the boundary between Durham and Yorkshire, but now the river runs through the centre of this sub-region which incorporates territory from both sides.

Although this is an unfamiliar alignment, 90 per cent of people who live in the Tees Valley also work in the Tees Valley, and about ten per cent of them cross a council boundary to get to work, so there is some inter-connection. The councils are also working increasingly together, as shown by the creation of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA).

What is the Tees Valley Combined Authority?

It is a body set up in April 2016 consisting of the five leaders of the Tees Valley councils, assisted by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) of private businesses, to have an overview of job creation. For example, the TVCA has been heavily involved in the jobs taskforce set up in the wake of the closure of the Redcar steelworks, and in the area’s 11 enterprise zones. Recently, it has announced plans for a new Tees crossing, to better connect Teesport with the A1(M), and for a £150m overhaul of Darlington’s Bank Top station which will partly prepare it for the arrival of HS2.

Where does the new mayor fit in?

The mayor will chair the TVCA, and his principal role will be economic development. To that end, he will have powers over transport, housing, skills and apprenticeships, business growth, and culture and tourism.

Some of these powers will be pooled upwards from the five councils, but most of them are being devolved downwards from central government. With them comes an “investment fund” of £450m over 30 years – that’s £15m a year. It seems likely that the mayor’s powers will be increased, probably to enable him to borrow.

The mayor will have a cabinet, made up of the five council leaders, which will advise and scrutinise his plans and budget. The LEP will also have a role in this. There is also a scrutiny committee made up of 15 councillors – three from each authority – which is currently headed by Heather Scott, a Darlington Conservative.

It is expected that the mayor will become the figurehead for the Tees Valley in a way that individual council leaders or MPs, who each represent a constituency, cannot. Bolstered by his democratic mandate, the mayor will have influence beyond his narrow powers.

The new mayor will not have any effect on the existing ceremonial mayors who will continue to operate in their council areas. Middlesbrough, though, may come to wonder whether it wants a directly-elected council-leading mayor as well as a directly-elected combined-authority-leading mayor.

How much will the mayor be paid?

The annual salary is £35,800, which is an average of the five council leaders’ reimbursements.

Which other areas are getting these “metro mayors”?

The Tees Valley is at the front of the Government’s policy to devolve powers to city-regions with a democratic structure. The other regions electing mayors on May 4 are Greater Manchester, Liverpool & Merseyside, West Midlands, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and West of England (Bristol and Bath). All have bigger budgets than the Tees Valley, and all have different powers.

The most powerful mayor will be in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham is standing for Labour. He will control a £900m 30-year fund and he will double as the Police and Crime Commissioner while having oversight of health.

One of the most interesting contests will be in the West Midlands (which comprises Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton and has a £1.1bn fund) where Andy Street, the former boss of John Lewis, is standing for the Conservatives. He has a radical agenda for spinning off public services into employee-owned businesses and promises to take a performance-related salary dependent upon job creation.

While the Tees Valley is the smallest of the five metro mayor regions, the powers in the other areas show what its mayor could evolve into. The Tees Valley is the only mayor to control culture and tourism, which has been unpromoted since the demise of the regional development agency.

Another wave of mayors is expected in 2018, and the North-East – Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear – may get its act together to go forward. It had reached an agreement with the Government but had to withdraw at the last moment when Gateshead got cold feet.

The picture in North Yorkshire is much more confused as no one has worked out how much territory a Leeds city-region will be allowed to cover and what then happens to places outside its control.

What is the voting system?

You have to be registered by Tuesday, April 18 to vote on Thursday, May 4. The mayor will be elected by the “Supplementary Vote System”, as used for the London mayor and the Police and Crime Commissioners.

There will be two columns on the ballot paper. You put one cross alongside the name of your first choice in the first column, and, if you wish, a second cross for your second preference in the second column.

If one candidate wins more than 50 per cent of first choices, they are elected without further ado.

If not, the top two candidates go into a second round and the others are eliminated. All the second choices from the eliminated candidates are then counted to discover the winner.

This system takes into account more voters’ preferences and is said to encourage “conciliatory” campaigning because it is important for candidates to win second choice votes. However, the winner may not have the support of a majority of the electorate.

What percentage of the electorate will bother to vote?

There is little public demand for the new position and there are no other elections in the Tees Valley on May 4 to encourage people to the polling booths, so turnout is likely to be low. Higher than 25 per cent would be seen as a real triumph although in 2012, the first Police and Crime Commissioner elections in this area didn’t even attract 15 per cent of the voters.

However, Paul Smith, the lead singer of chart-toppers Maximo Park is applying the pressure. He said: “Growing up in Billingham, I often felt like Teesside was pretty isolated from the rest of the country in political, cultural and economic terms. I feel that we are capable of much more as a region. Whatever your politics, I would urge people of all ages and backgrounds to vote in the upcoming Tees Valley Mayoral election - it's your right, after all!”

How do you become a candidate?

You must get your nomination forms to Stockton council, which is acting as the returning officer for the elections, by 4pm tomorrow. You must be nominated by 100 electors, and you must pay a deposit of £5,000, which will be refunded to candidates who receive more than five per cent of the votes cast.

A deposit is to prevent time-wasting candidates. In Parliamentary elections, £500 is required, but £5,000 could be too high to encourage independent candidates to put their names forward, particularly as each candidate also has to contribute £750 towards the publication of an information booklet which will be distributed to every household across the Tees Valley prior to polling day. The North-East Party has had to withdraw because it couldn’t crowdfund the money – not even with the offer of a cake for every £10 pledged.

Each candidate is allowed to spend £40,603.36 on their campaign.

Who are the candidates?

So far declared:

  • Chris Foote Wood (Lib Dem): The former leader of Wear Valley District Council who has stood for Parliament eight times and for the European Parliament six times.
  • Ben Houchen (Conservative): A Yarm businessman who leads the Conservatives on Stockton council.
  • Sue Jeffrey (Labour): The leader of the Redcar and Cleveland Council and formerly the chair of TCVA
  • John Tennant (Ukip): Leader of his party on Hartlepool council.

It would be nice to think that a charismatic independent candidate might emerge, but not only is the deposit high, but the Tees Valley is a large area for someone without the backing of a party machine to campaign across.

Who is the front-runner?

Well, all five councils are Labour-run, and of the seven MPs who represent the Tees Valley, six are Labour. It would be a surprise if Labour lost, but a low turnout plus the popularity of “insurgent” politics add a Trump-like touch of unpredictability. It would create an interesting politic dynamic if the public elected a non-Labour figure to head the all-Labour cabinet.

When will we know the result?

When polling closes at 10pm on May 4, the ballot boxes will be collected by each council which will verify the votes cast in its area. The boxes will then go to Thornaby Pavilion where counting will start at 11am on Friday, May 5, with the result known before 4pm.