Tees Valley Mayor Houchen quizzed on jobs, energy and skills

The partners in The Northern Echo’s level Up campaign got their chance at our recent live event. They had the mayor to themselves for a full hour to press home their points in a face-to-face chat with the most influential person on Teesside. What they chose to ask and how Ben responded are important because they shine a light on the conversations going on around our region about bringing challenging viewpoints to the table with a determination to progress and collaborate.

Geoff Paul, Head of Development and Housing at Durham County Council kicked things off, talking about that collaboration theme and asking: “How best can we generate a positive collaboration across the whole of the North East, in order to get our arguments to central government in terms of economic growth or Levelling Up?"

Ben Houchen:

“Overly simplistically, you can say, I’m not really interested in what happens in Durham or Newcastle because my priority is the Tees Valley.

Read more: Energy giant bp joins Northern Echo's Level Up campaign

"That’s kind of the default, but we all know in practice life doesn’t work like that when we’ve people living right across the North East, including people who work in the combined authority and live on the outskirts of Newcastle.

“I think we get overly fixated on the idea that there has to be a single North East voice, because naturally there can’t be because what’s important to Newcastle isn’t always what’s important to Teesside and vice versa, and nor should it be.

“There are some examples where we can and should come together where actually having something in the North East irrespective of whether it’s based in Teesside, Newcastle or Northumberland or anywhere in between, is just a good thing for the region.

“Before Christmas the Qatar Foundation said they were looking to create a research and technology institute in the North of England.

"Now obviously I would say Teesside can play a key role in that, and we can talk about all the benefits of it.

“But if you want to land something like the Qatar Foundation, where you’re talking about literally billions of dollars creating the Harvard and MIT of the UK in the North of England it doesn’t actually matter whether that’s in Teesside, Durham or Newcastle because the knock-on effects are absolutely huge.

“So I think what it’s about is being strategic about the things that we can collectively agree on, but ultimately just to benefit the North East.

“And then fundamentally the issue of Levelling Up for the rest of the North East is they need more representation in current Government policy.

“ Some of the leaders across the North East might not like it, but if they want to be at the top table and they want to have access to the money and funding, they’re going to have some very difficult questions that they need to look at internally - and answer.”

John McCabe, Chief Executive, North East England Camber of Commerce commented:

“ We are too small a region to fragment much further, but we’re plenty big enough to accept that actually the Tees Valley economy looks very different to Northumberland, and that might mean we have a slightly different governance structure in place or different economic priorities.

“I’m interested in just getting that investment and those jobs into this region. Where they sit, whether it’s Darlington Durham, Newcastle, I’ll leave to other people, but my interest is getting them into this region rather than any other.”

Ben was also asked about low land values and how we can begin to effectively tackle the regeneration of these areas before it simply becomes too late.

He said he thought the view might be outdated and that recent statistics showed strong demand for commercial space.

“But one major issue is we just don’t have enough good quality grade A office space. It was good in the early 2000s or the mid-90s, but it’s now all out of date and we’re seeing pinch points in places like Darlington as people want to start moving to be near the Treasury campus.

“Just last week I was speaking to a national professional services firm who want to move 200 people into an office there.

“The issue you have there is deliverability because that business isn’t going to wait two years for you to build an office.

“Because of that and the other big stuff that’s going on, we’re seeing an increase in demand which is driving up rents, and if you look at the development corporation and Teesworks, some of those numbers are more than double what they would have been five years ago.

“On the day the Freeport was announced, we were speaking to some property agents and being told that some of the small industrial units around the edge were for sale and overnight the asking price more than doubled.

“On the residential side, we’ve got some very good housing stock - very affordable housing comparative to the rest of the country. The cost of living and the standard of living in this area can be second to none.

Read more: New plans revealed for Teesside Airport business park

“The big problem we have with residential is blight, and that tends to be around slum landlords in places like central Middlesbrough or central Stockton who are literally trading houses like they are playing cards - at six or ten thousand pounds and having ten, 15, 20 people living in a two-up two-down.

“What intervention can you make to take that property from them and have remediation orders to make sure that they keep it to a certain standard?

“There is also the knock-on effect of antisocial behaviour, which has a huge impact for investment in town centres.”

Stephen Gill, Global Account Executive, Cummins:

"Cummins are heavily involved in stem projects with schools and colleges are you aware of any plans to develop future engineers at a higher education?

Ben Houchen:

“A new problem that we’re facing for the first time, both independently because amazing businesses like Cummins are already on with this or because of the investments we’re able to attract into the area, is that we can see the jobs pipeline.

“The biggest problem we have is local people actually being skilled for the jobs that are coming.

“I keep trying to reinforce this to the colleges and the universities that in three years time we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves because I suspect you would be able to tell me now roughly the breakdown of what you’re going to need as part of project leads.

“So when when we get that profile it should be relatively easy for us to process things, which is the principle of the Teesworks Academy.

“We’ve had a conversation more with GE at the moment because it’s ever so slightly further ahead, but we’ll be having one with BP and all other investors that are coming, that we’re happy being a conduit between you and the colleges and universities to make sure that you’re getting the right training for your staff, but it’s also actually going to require your input as well.

John McCabe of the North East England Chamber of Commerce

Because I think one thing colleges have always struggled on is they’re very good at giving them a qualification that they’re accredited for on a piece of paper, but that doesn’t actually mean that you’re ready out of the box to walk into a lot of these businesses.

“Give us a lot of that soft skill and additional training that you need and we can bring this together as colleges just aren’t flexible enough to do that, and to some extent universities aren’t either.

“There is an ongoing training need as well, so it’s not just about getting people out of the box, it’s also that as hydrogen technology develops - and I’m sure that Cummins’ engine business will have the next generation of cells and battery technology that goes with that as well as the hydrogen combustion engine - it will be moving very quickly.

"So is there a way in which we can just have a central point that we can provide that from a technology point of view.”

Peter Snaith, Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson:

"There’s no secret that you’re out there all the time promoting the region. Is there any more that we can do with you, harnessing the collective power of working with you and your team to help deliver those objectives quicker?

Ben Houchen:

“We’re getting a lot of big infrastructure funds and institutional money from the city who are really interested in what’s going on, particularly around the net zero agenda, and they’re looking for investment opportunities both for themselves, but also for a lot of their clients.

“So one of the things that we will be coming forward in the next couple of months is we’re in the process of arranging a series of meetings with these funds, to present to them and their clients about the Teesside opportunity.

“So if you have clients or if you know of anybody who is looking for investment because they are looking to grow, let us know.

“But the challenge has to go on business - it’s always fine for business to say the colleges aren’t producing what we need, but businesses need to meet us halfway and step up to the mark.

“I believe 100% that in the next three or four years we’re going to see thousands and thousands of jobs created on Teesside across multiple sectors, but the biggest concern I have is that we create all these jobs, but there is no community cohesion and buy-in to all of these projects because people feel frozen out

“It’s not very sexy and I appreicate you want to make money, you’re going to win more clients, but actually, businesses, now more than ever, need to start looking pretty seriously at their training investment.”

Louise Kingham, Senior Vice President of BP in Europe and Head of Country in the UK:

“How do we make sure we really reach young people, not just with the education skills, but in a way which is long term sustainable, so people want to live here, stay here, work here, have families here and build a community here?”

Ben Houchen:

“We are generally getting to a place in the next couple of years where we can say actually if you want a career in tackling climate change and reaching net zero, you want to move to Teesside.

"Because the vision I have is I want Teesside to become synonymous with net zero in the same way that Silicon Valley is with social media and IT.

“So set that agenda and that means you then have the credibility to go in and start selling to local communities where you’ve got to appreciate there have been a lot of false dawns, a lot of false positives, and there’s a cynicism that builds up.

“So let’s not get overly complicated about this - if you say you’re going to do something different, do it.

Louise Kingham of bp quizzes the mayor

"It’s amazing how far that actually goes with the local community because they’re not used to it. That sounds awful, but it’s true.“I don’t care what a kid wants to do, I just want them to be inspired because what you find is when you inspire a child at that age, it gives them a purpose and they want to learn as well, so you find education outcomes much better.

“So that’s how I see it coming together, but we need to get the big things right because without getting the big things right, you don’t actually change fundamental failures that we have in our economy.

“Tweaking stuff around the edges does not change Teesside’s future. The big stuff creates the change that allows us to filter in the rest.”

John McCabe asked how embedded Levelling Up was in Government and ‘can it survive another Tory leadership contest?’

The Mayor replied: “I personally think it will be the thing that saves Boris.

“It needs to move relatively quickly into a vision over the next two or three years into the next election because that’s the one thing that the MPs want to hear. That’s what their constituents want to hear.

“Boris is a very, very savvy political character and I think he’s now thinking Brexit is the thing that got me the leadership contest in the first place and the thing that got me the election in 2019 was just being relentless about the delivery for people.

“I think if anything it could be a complete refresh and when it comes to the Government levelling up agenda more broadly it absolutely runs central to everything the Government’s doing and any applications you make, anything you want to talk about they want to know how it’s associated with levelling up.

“But it’s also a little bit haphazard and they need to focus and actually start to be very clear on what that Government thinking is. The first round of levelling up is tangible things that people can touch and feel, and it doesn’t need to be finished, it just needs to be on with, because that then buys the goodwill where people will say actually they’re delivering on it - let’s give them more time to finish it.

Stephen Gill of Cummins asked about more zero-emissions transport and Ben replied:

“In the short term there needs to be some kind of government support to be able to get some of this technology running at scale.

“There is the Zebra fund (Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas) which we will be bidding for and we’ve agreed with DfT to put tens of millions of pounds into decarbonising public transport.

“We have two main bus companies in the Valley, Arriva and Stagecoach and we’re speaking to both of them, and the idea is that we’ll put money in and they will put in many millions of pounds and the plan is that will jointly bid into Zebra to completely decarbonise all the whole bus network across the Tees Valley. "The only thing we now need from the bus company which they’re going away to do is give us a kind of a waterfall of timings of replacement buses and get rid of the really old crappy stuff immediately and how long it will actually take them to replace all 330 buses.

“We’re also finalising the work that we’re doing with Northern Gas Network about testing hydrogen in the grid, which is going extremely well and preliminary testing is actually pretty exceptional.

“I think that gives confidence to the big investors to put the production end in which drives down the technology cost and then actually the transport stuff can tick again.

“What we’re actually trying to do is be a bit cheeky because we’ve got huge government grants, so can we do a little bit of both at the same time?

“The thing is, we’ve got some incredible local people and there is an additional element of them buying into the project model because they know so much about the area and they believe that just because it happens in America or the Far East or London, why can’t it happen in Teesside?

“Sometimes it takes quite a while for people to think that and they look at you as if you’ve got two heads.

"But because of the deliverables that we’ve made it gives people the belief to think that way.

“Now we’ve just got to continue to let people think big."

To join our Level Up campaign and become part of the debate for the future of the region, contact pete.noble@localiq.co.uk

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated Teesside Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054