TEES Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has insisted a town centre would not be big enough to house hundreds of civil servants being moved out of London after MP Andy McDonald said Middlesbrough was the “ideal location”.

Teesside is in the running to host a new economic hub spanning several different Government departments, but is facing competition from the likes of Leeds and Newcastle.

Mr Houchen’s preferred option is for new offices to be built on land at Teesside Airport, but Mr McDonald said this would be “wholly unsuitable” and went against evidence suggesting a town or city centre location would gain the most benefit.

The Tory mayor has already hosted Treasury officials who have been scouting potential locations in the North, while also considering local amenities such as housing and schools.

As part of the Conservative administration’s levelling up the regions agenda, Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants to create a Northern campus which would cater for up to 750 staff from the Treasury, but also other officials from business, trade and local Government departments.

An announcement is likely to be made in the New Year.

Labour’s Mr McDonald said: “Middlesbrough offers the ideal location for the Northern campus. 

“Bringing that number of jobs to Middlesbrough would mean that there would be a whole host of other jobs created by the workers providing services to the campus. 

“It would be transformational and bring immense benefits to other businesses and organisations across the town and wider Tees Valley.”

He added: “Recent suggestions about the preferred location being land at Teesside Airport are wholly unsuitable and go against a weight of evidence showing the economic benefits of locating businesses within a town or city centre. 

“You don’t put such a development out on a limb away from other services and utilities. 

The Northern Echo:

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen thinks land at Teesside Airport is a better option

“It’s wasteful and misses a golden opportunity to bring other benefits.”

Councillor Matthew Storey, leader of Middlesbrough Council’s Labour group, said Middlesbrough’s Centre Square could provide the office space to accommodate the Whitehall departments.

He said: “The council will gain significant revenue from the rental income and the civil servants will spend their hard-earned cash in Middlesbrough’s retail and hospitality businesses. 

“This kind of investment is a one-off opportunity which we can’t afford to see shunted out to an out-of-town industrial estate. 

“This economic vitality will be critical as Tees Valley recovers post-covid and Middlesbrough is the right destination for it.” 

The strong rail and air links of the airport site near Darlington, including its proximity to the East Coast Mainline and a recently revived direct flight to Heathrow, could boost its chances of success.

Mr Houchen has yet to fully reveal his proposals, but it seems most likely any new office complex for Government staff would be built on the airport’s proposed Southside business park.

It is set to cover a massive 34 million square feet across 270 acres of land once completed.

Future potential revenue could be reinvested in the airport, which Mr Houchen brought back into public hands from previous owners Peel.

Mr Houchen said: “It’s nice to see Andy McDonald finally catching up and supporting my work to bring these Government jobs to Teesside.

“Over the last 18 months I’ve submitted a detailed proposal to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove, as well as cabinet office and Treasury officials.

“Earlier this year I hosted senior Treasury officials who came to the region to discuss my proposals and scope out our amazing area.  “We’ve absolutely demonstrated that it can be done.

“These plans are so ambitious that the full proposal would require many hundreds of thousands of sq ft of office space, suitable for the most important Government departments in the UK. 

“There is a preference from the Government for a new build scheme and from months of discussions, a town centre location simply isn’t big enough for the plans the Government are talking about. 

“We don’t just want to see a few hundred officials come to Teesside, we are proposing to the Government that they move numerous departments over the coming years.”

Mr Houchen added: “Over recent months I’ve also been very clear with the Government that they must not do the very lazy thing – which I’m sure the civil servants will want them to do – which is take some jobs out of London and put them in Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle.

“Major cities do not face the same challenges and issues as those faced by our towns and villages across the region and the majority of people in the UK don’t live in cities.

“So if the Government really wants to make sure that policy makers understand the needs and challenges of communities outside London, they cannot just move these jobs to another metropolitan city.

“Moving from London to another major city would be levelling up without actually levelling up and would not be acceptable to me or to local people.”

Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston has also previously had his say over the chosen location for the economic hub.

However Mr Preston suggested new offices could be built at Middlehaven, on the outskirts of Middlesbrough town centre, rather than Centre Square.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Levelling up is about how and where we spend money and create opportunities but it’s also about who we are as an organisation, so we’re excited about this new chapter.”