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Ben Houchen

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The Right Honourable Mayor
The Lord Houchen of High Leven
Houchen in 2024
Tees Valley Mayor
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 May 2017
Preceded byOffice established
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 July 2023
Life peerage
Personal details
Born
Ben Houchen

(1986-12-09) 9 December 1986 (age 37)
Stockton-on-Tees, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Rachel Flanagan
​
(m. 2011)​
Residence(s)Yarm, North Yorkshire, England
Alma materNorthumbria University
WebsiteOfficial website

Ben Houchen, Baron Houchen of High Leven (born 9 December 1986), is a British Conservative politician and life peer. He has been Tees Valley Mayor since 2017, winning the inaugural mayoral election in the combined authority. Houchen was re-elected in 2021 and won a third term in 2024.

As mayor, Houchen represents the five local authority areas in the Tees Valley: Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, and Darlington, and he also acts as chairman of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the body tasked with driving economic growth and job creation in the area.[1]

As of May 2024, Houchen is the only Conservative combined-authority mayor in England.

Early life

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Born at Stockton-on-Tees, Houchen grew up in Ingleby Barwick[2] and attended Conyers' School in Yarm before going up to read law at Northumbria University.[2] He is the nephew of Keith Houchen, a former football player for Coventry City F.C.[3]

Political career

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Houchen served as a Councillor on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, representing Yarm Ward, between 2011 and 2017.[4] In 2012 he stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in the Middlesbrough by-election, finishing fourth of eight candidates with 1,063 votes (6.3%), only three votes ahead of the Peace Party.[5] In the 2014 European Parliament elections, Houchen was the Conservative candidate for the North East region.[6]

Houchen was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for Tees Valley Mayor in December 2016.[7] Upon taking office, he became styled as Mayor.[8]

In 2019, he appeared on LBC's list of the "Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives", at number 100.[9] He was accused of pork barrel politics in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election of 2021.[10]

At the 2021 Tees Valley mayoral election, Houchen was re-elected with 72.8% of the vote.[11]

Nominated as a Life Peer in Boris Johnson's resignation honours of June 2023,[12][13] on 12 July 2023, he was created Baron Houchen of High Leven, of Ingleby Barwick in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees.[14] Introduced to the House of Lords on 24 July,[15] where he sits on the Conservative benches,[16] Lord Houchen of High Leven made his maiden speech on 8 November 2023.[17]

Houchen with Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Steve Rotheram in 2024 whilst visiting Downing Street

Houchen was reelected for a third time in May 2024 on a reduced majority. Following his reelection, Houchen criticised prime minister Rishi Sunak, blaming him for infighting and chaos within the Conservative Party.[18][19]

Teesside Airport

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Teesside Airport, seen prior to the combined authority's purchase

As part of his 2017 mayoral campaign, Houchen promised to bring Teesside International Airport (then Durham Tees Valley Airport) back into its previous name and public ownership.[20] In December 2018 Houchen announced that a £40 million deal to buy the airport had been reached with The Peel Group.[21] The acquisition was unanimously approved by the Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet in January 2019.[22]

Losses at the airport grew to £30.3 million from the 2019 to 2022 financial years,[23][24][25] leading to Houchen ploughing a further £30 million of public money into the airport.[26][27]

South Tees Development Corporation

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The South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) is the first Mayoral Development Corporation outside of London.[28] Chaired by Houchen,[29] the STDC area covers approximately 4,500 acres of land to the south of the River Tees, in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland, and includes the former SSI steelworks site as well as other industrial assets. The area includes the deep-water port of Teesport. The STDC aims to create approximately 20,000 new jobs and contribute £1 billion per annum to the UK economy by 2025.[30] However, as of late 2021, the economic impact of the port has been described as 'speculative' by a member of the management board.[31]

In January 2019, Houchen announced that a deal had been reached to acquire 1,420 acres of land on the STDC site from Tata Steel Europe.[32] The acquisition was signed off in February 2019.[33]

Consequently, he was one of the figures responsible in 2021 for the controversial demolition of the landmark Dorman Long Tower despite the granting of a Grade II listing to the Brutalist building.[34] He later accused the Historic England official who listed the structure of being a junior member of staff, who had acted without the permission of senior managers. This was later robustly denied by Historic England, who released a statement saying "The mayor’s statement is incorrect – the listing was not a mistake. Historic England advised DCMS to list the site. Following a site visit, our advice to list the site remained the same".[35]

In November 2023, Houchen proposed the STDC area as a potential location for a Las Vegas-style Sphere venue, after London Mayor Sadiq Khan blocked proposals for the MSG Sphere London on the grounds of light pollution.[36][37]

2024 Conservative Party leadership election (UK)

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On 9 July 2024, Houchen said in an interview on Times Radio (when asked whether Suella Braverman was a suitable choice to be Leader of the Conservative party): "I don’t think it’s a credible offering and the MPs and the members that I speak to are not interested in the divisive rightwing politics of Suella Braverman. If the Conservative party decides to go down the route of somebody like Suella Braverman, then we can absolutely see ourselves in opposition for generations to come."[38]

Controversies

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Houchen (right), with Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng (centre), at one of the entrances to the "Teesworks" site, in March 2021

In 2023, Houchen was criticised after it emerged that a 90 per cent stake in the company that operates the vacant Redcar Steelworks site, teesworks, was transferred to two local developers, Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, without any public tender process.[39] It also emerged that the private developers have received at least £45 million in dividends and hold £63 million cash from the project despite not having invested any direct cash in the project themselves.[39][40][41]

A subsequent investigation found that the Tees Valley Combined Authority and South Tees Development Corporation did not meet standards expected when managing public funds, and raised questions about transparency and oversight across the system to evidence value for money.[41][40]

Personal life

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Houchen married Rachel Flanagan, a former deputy head teacher at Conyers' School, in 2011.[42] Houchen lives in Yarm in Cleveland.[43]

References

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  1. ^ "About Us". Tees Valley Combined Authority. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b Robson, Dave (5 May 2017). "Who is new Tees mayor Ben Houchen?". gazettelive. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  3. ^ "No stopping the momentum". North East Times. 1 May 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Stockton Council -". www.egenda.stockton.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Labour victory in Middlesbrough". BBC News. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  6. ^ www.northtyneside.gov.uk
  7. ^ "Ben Houchen chosen to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of Tees Valley". Conservative Home. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  8. ^ Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, s 107A(5).
  9. ^ Dale, Iain (30 September 2019). "The Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2019". LBC. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  10. ^ Payne, Sebastian (3 May 2021). "Tories' red wall shows no signs of crumbling on Teesside". Financial Times.
  11. ^ "Tees Valley Mayor election: Conservative Ben Houchen retains role". BBC News.
  12. ^ "Resignation Peerages 2023" (PDF). Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  13. ^ "No. 64120". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 July 2023. p. 14502.
  14. ^ "No. 64117". The London Gazette. 18 July 2023. p. 14218.
  15. ^ "Introduction: Lord Houchen of High Leven". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 832. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. 24 July 2023. col. 1.
  16. ^ "Lord Houchen of High Leven". Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  17. ^ "Lord Houchen of High Leven: Spoken contributions". MPs and Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  18. ^ "Rishi Sunak to blame for Tory 'chaos', Ben Houchen says". 9 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  19. ^ Buchan, Lizzy (9 May 2024). "Tory mayor blames Rishi Sunak for 'chaos' as Labour takes 30-point poll lead". The Mirror. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  20. ^ "Tees Valley mayor: Conservative Ben Houchen wins". BBC News. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  21. ^ "Mayor agrees £35m airport purchase". 4 December 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  22. ^ "Durham Tees Valley Airport to officially go back under public ownership in £40m deal". ITV News. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Teesside Airport made £2.6million loss in 2019/20". Hartlepool Mail. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  24. ^ "Teesside Airport makes huge losses – with staggering £14 MILLION lost in the last year". The Northern Echo. 21 September 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  25. ^ Whitfield, Graeme (15 December 2022). "Losses widen at Teesside Airport as pandemic hits passenger numbers". TeessideLive. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  26. ^ "Teesside Airport to get extra £10m of extra public cash". The Northern Echo. 1 July 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  27. ^ "Councillors agree to give Teesside Airport another £20m". The Northern Echo. 22 July 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  28. ^ "About South Tees Development Corporation – South Tees Development Corporation". South Tees Development Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  29. ^ "Tees Valley Mayor & Board | South Tees Development Corporation". South Tees Development Corporation. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  30. ^ "STDC's Master Plan | South Tees Development Corporation". South Tees Development Corporation. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  31. ^ Arnold, Stuart (6 December 2021). "Council leader says income from freeport's business rates is not yet known". TeessideLive. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  32. ^ "Steelworks land transfer deal agreed". 7 January 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  33. ^ "'There's nothing stopping us' – Tees Valley Mayor signs off steelworks land deal". The Northern Echo. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  34. ^ "Dorman Long tower to be destroyed after listed status revoked". BBC News. 17 September 2021.
  35. ^ "Dorman Long tower: Ben Houchen and Historic England clash over listing". The Northern Echo. 21 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  36. ^ Liberty, Dunworth (20 November 2023). "Sadiq Khan rejects plans for Las Vegas style Sphere in London". NME. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  37. ^ Corrigan, Naomi (20 November 2023). "'Viva Las Teesside': Ben Houchen's proposal for version of Sphere and 'bit of Las Vegas'". TeessideLive. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  38. ^ Elgot, Jessica; Walker, Peter. "Suella Braverman's 'divisive politics' make her unfit to be leader, says Tory mayor". The Guardian.
  39. ^ a b Williams, Jennifer (15 May 2023). "Trouble in Teesside: a Tory rising star and a divisive property deal". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  40. ^ a b "Independent review report: South Tees Development Corporation and Teesworks Joint Venture – executive summary and recommendations". GOV.UK. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  41. ^ a b Jones, Leigh (30 January 2024). "Ben Houchen on Teesworks: "We got things wrong"". The Yorkshire Post.
  42. ^ "Tees Valley Mayor – Tees Valley Combined Authority". Tees Valley Combined Authority. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  43. ^ "Burke's Peerage". burkespeerage.com. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
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