Multi-million-pound government deals in place for Northern towns

Today (November 1), Mayor Ben Houchen has welcomed funding that will allow towns in the Tees Valley to benefit from up to £125m of government money.

Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Thornaby have been awarded the funding as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Towns Fund programme.

A total of £843,125 is being made available in capacity funding to enable the councils to develop business plans.

They will each then be able to bid for up to £25m in funding as part of the government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund.

With five towns from the region included, the Tees Valley will receive more allocations than any other City Region in the UK.

Mayor Houchen said: “I’m delighted that government has pledged funding to help our five boroughs kick off their innovative plans to make the Tees Valley an even better place to live and do business.

“As we’ve seen with the devolution deal that led to my election as Tees Valley Mayor, the people best placed to make decisions about an area are those who live in it.

“This is the first step in securing a pot of up to £125m for the Tees Valley, to give our areas the freedom to do what is needed so that we can continue to attract and retain the businesses our towns need to thrive and encourage even more people to these spaces.

“This is great news and shows what we can do when we pull together, work hard and put forward a positive vision for our area.”

The councils will now bring together a Town Deal Board, including representatives from across the public, private and voluntary sectors to create business plans, by summer 2020.