Levelling up grants for Teesside, Hartlepool and Guisborough

Guisborough and areas across the Tees Valley will receive funding.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority and Redcar and Cleveland and Hartlepool councils have been successful in bids for so-called levelling up funding.

Plans include walking routes, a production village and town centre renovations.

Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said the projects would be "game-changing".

Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham said "the whole thing stinks" and levelling up was a "sham".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the funding would be "transformational" for the region and defended giving more money to bids in the south-east of England.

A total of 111 areas across the UK have been awarded money from the second round of the government's £2.1bn Levelling Up Fund.

The Institute for Government has said councils' central government grants - including retained business rates - were cut 37% in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20, from £41.0bn to £26.0bn in 2019-20 prices.

Ben Houchen said it was "a great day" for the area.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority's bid will see nearly £18m used for nine miles (15km) of walking and cycling routes across Teesside, Hartlepool and Darlington, it said.

Investment will be made in better paving and new cycle lanes between Darlington Town Centre to Northgate, Yarm Road to Stockton Town Centre and Redcar Town Centre to West Dyke Road.

Mr Houchen said the funding "caps off another great day for Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool".

Hartlepool is already home to "the only large-scale film studio" in the region.

Hartlepool Council will be awarded more than £16m for a new production village, it was announced.

The project, to be based near the town's train station, aims to create jobs in the creative industries.

Guisborough will get investment for shopfronts.

Some £20m has been awarded after a successful bid from Conservative Middlesbrough and South East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke MP and Redcar and Cleveland Council.

The majority of the money will be invested in Guisborough, with £15m spent on improvements to the town.

Plans include street furniture, CCTV, signage, trees and a skate park.

Mr Clarke said he was "delighted" and the funds would give the town "the renovation it deserves".

Improved parking at Guisborough Forest and Walkway Visitor Centre is also planned, as well as a Guisborough to Nunthorpe cycle route.

Then £4.8m will go to Coulby Newham for the Newham Grange Highway Scheme which will allow 800 new homes to be built.

The remaining £175,000 will "look at the potential" of a new park and ride scheme.

Mr Clarke said the project was "particularly exciting" as a new "Nunthorpe Parkway" could provide rail links to Middlesbrough town centre, Teesworks and the wider region, which could "become a legitimate solution to the Marton Crawl".

About 525 applications were submitted from across the UK.

Unsuccessful bids included those from Middlesbrough Council, Billingham Council, Redcar and Cleveland Council and Darlington Council.

Middlesbrough Council wanted £20m to transform the former Crown pub and House of Fraser, but was turned down.

The town's Labour MP Andy McDonald described it as a "kick in the teeth".

Analysis

Politics North Editor Michael Wild

The government has made plenty of promises to level-up the north. But meeting the expectations it has raised since 2019 is proving difficult.

The collapse of Britishvolt's plans for a giant new factory near Blyth making car batteries put a dent in the government's levelling-up rhetoric this week. So Rishi Sunak might have hoped that unveiling a new list of successful levelling-up bids would restore some of the shine and prove the party is sticking to its commitments to raise up poorer and more deprived regions.

As the North East has the highest unemployment rate and some of the worst levels of deprivation, there's an expectation it will get the most funding. But on this occasion London and the South East had more successful projects and more cash - although of course it also has far more people living there and its own pockets of deprivation.

Stockton Council applied for £20m for Billingham town centre, but was turned down for the second time.

Mr Cunningham said: "Billingham is fit to burst with potential but once again its bid for "Levelling Up" money has been rejected by Tory Ministers.

"The whole thing stinks. The Tories like to talk a good talk on levelling up, but this and the fact the North East as a whole received £108m compared to £210m for the South East - is yet more proof that "Levelling Up" is a sham."

Redcar and Cleveland Council missed out on £20m for regeneration work in Eston, which included a new pool.

Redcar's Conservative MP Jacob Young said it was "disappointing", but welcomed news of other investments on Teesside.

Darlington Council was also unsuccessful in a £20m bid to redevelop the Northgate area of the town.