Tees Valley Mayoral candidates clash over Teesworks deal

Ben Houchen, Chris McEwan and Simon Thorley are vying to be Tees Valley Mayor

The three candidates vying to be Tees Valley Mayor have clashed over the Teesworks site in a BBC debate.

BBC Radio Tees hosted a hustings featuring incumbent mayor, Conservative Ben Houchen, Labour's Chris McEwan and Simon Thorley of the Liberal Democrats.

The men also had heated discussions on issues including how to save high streets, the future of Teesside Airport and how to eradicate poverty.

The election for 670,000 people will be held on 2 May.

The mayoral role was created in 2017 to cover Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland and has been held by Mr Houchen since.

• The debate as it happened

The candidates were asked about Teesworks, the huge regeneration project of the former Redcar Steelworks site.

The debate came on the same day prominent Teesside businessman Steve Gibson criticised Mr Houchen in The Northern Echo for the deal he has signed with two local businessmen to regenerate the site.

In response, Mr Houchen said it had been a "great deal" which would ease the burden on taxpayers while yielding £1.3bn in return, and said Mr Gibson had "ulterior motives".

He said the Teesworks project was fantastic" for the region, would create 9,000 jobs and criticisms were "typical politicking".

Analysis: a fractious debate for a close contest

By Luke Walton, BBC North East and Cumbria political correspondent

Election-watchers expect the contest to be close.

So if today's fractious debate moves only a few hundred votes one way or the other, it could prove important.

So who ended the exchange ahead? Hard to say.

The Conservative incumbent Ben Houchen certainly finished the hour in dominant style - repeating his challenge to Labour over the airport.

But Labour's Chris McEwan and Liberal Democrat Simon Thorley were on the front-foot earlier - whether articulating concerns about value for taxpayer's money at Teesworks, or questioning Lord Houchen's record on local high streets.

All in all, this slugfest didn't deliver a clear winner.

But it may have changed at least a few minds. Tell your friends. It's worth a watch.

Both Mr McEwan and Mr Thorley said they would immediately start renegotiating the deal should they be elected.

Mr Thorley said "nothing would be off the table" and he would even seek to take legal action to "get the money back where it belongs".

Mr McEwan said he would invite a review of the process so far as it was important to "understand exactly what has gone on".

Ben Houchen defended his Teesworks deals

He said the Teesworks project had "the potential to be at the centre of a green industrial revolution" and a "spear" of the UK becoming a "green energy super power".

Mr Thorley said an independent review "worryingly couldn't understand or assess" the scheme's "value for money", but Mr Houchen disputed his claim.

The review made 28 recommendations which Mr Houchen said revolved around "tighter processes and procedures" which were being acted upon, adding: "We will improve and make things better."

The candidates were also asked about how to revive struggling high streets.

Mr Houchen said it was key to create jobs, such as the 800 treasury department roles brought into Darlington, with people then better able to support local businesses.

Chris McEwan said he wanted to solve the area's problems

Mr McEwan said the solutions were "complex" but would include introducing free parking, better buses as the current system was "busted" and CCTV to make the night-time economy environment safer.

Mr Thorley said there needed to be a "bottom-up" response as the way people used high streets and shops had "fundamentally changed".

The three men also clashed over Teesside Airport, which Mr Houchen bought after his first election in 2017.

Mr Houchen said he had delivered on his promise to buy the airport and it was a "key piece of infrastructure" and "absolutely vital we can connect to the rest of the world".

Simon Thorley challenged the mayor's airport plan

He also accused Mr McEwan of wanting to sell the airport off for housing in his role at Darlington Borough Council, but Mr McEwan strongly refuted that.

Mr McEwan said he had always supported the airport as it was "critical for our economy and our pride as a region".

Mr Thorley said he would not close the airport but neither would he "do anything" for it, adding: "I don't think it's value for money. It's been an extremely poor investment."