North East mayor election expected to cost £3m

The first ever North East mayor will be elected in May

The staging of a historic election to choose the first North East mayor is set to cost taxpayers more than £3m.

The leader of the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA) will represent about two million people across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Durham and is due to be elected in May.

A report presented to council leaders on Tuesday said the cost would have to be covered from the budgets of the region’s existing authorities.

It confirmed that, unlike when the North of Tyne mayoral election was held in 2019, no specific funding was being provided by the government to cover the costs.

The price tag is currently estimated at £3,052,000, which includes printing and posting an information booklet that will be sent to every eligible voter, staffing the election count, and venue hire, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The bill will be split between the existing North of Tyne Combined Authority and the non-mayoral North East Combined Authority (NECA), both of which will be abolished once NEMCA comes into being on May 7.

Moving funds

The North of Tyne, which encompasses Newcastle, Northumberland, and North Tyneside, has set aside £1.392m to meet its share of the costs.

But members of the North East Joint Transport Committee had to sign off on moving £1.66m out of its transport reserves cash to pay for the share owed from Durham, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside.

A report to that committee stated that NECA did "not have access to any devolution funding" and had "not set aside any earmarked reserves to meet its share of the costs”, necessitating the use of some transport reserve funds.

Election

There are currently six candidates expected to stand in the election, which is due to be held at the same time as local council and Police and Crime Commissioner elections on 2 May.

They are independent Jamie Driscoll, Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson, the Labour Party’s Kim McGuinness, Reform UK’s Paul Donaghy, Andrew Gray of the Green Party, and Liberal Democrat Aidan King.