BEFORE Ben Houchen (Tees Valley mayor) launches into another eulogy on how wonderful the rejuvenation of Teesside is going to be, I suggest he takes a leaf out of Ken Loach’s book.

Have a ride 30 miles up the A19 to East Durham. There, 30 years on from losing their main industry, he will see, to quote Ken. “What was a thriving community is now rows of empty terraces. It is absolutely desperate!”

What makes Mr Houchen think that a London and South-East orientated government will care any more about another remote North-East community than they did about Durham?

Bill Bartle, Barnard Castle