Mayor hosts levelling up Secretary on tour of Teesworks

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has today (9 August) welcomed the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to Teesworks almost five years to the day after he played a vital role in establishing the site.

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP took a tour to see first-hand the transformation that has taken place at the former Redcar Steelworks site since it was first designated a Mayoral Development Corporation on 23 August 2017.

In his previous role as the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Mr Clark helped set up the South Tees Development Corporation and visited the 4,500-acre site with then-Prime Minister Theresa May to officially launch the body.

Since then, Teesworks, the UK’s largest and most connected industrial zone has seen significant demolition and land remediation to prepare it for investors bringing innovative and cutting-edge low carbon projects.

These include SeAH Wind’s mammoth £400m offshore wind monopile facility, with work on the factory under way now. The BP-led Net Zero Teesside Power is bringing the world’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and storage capabilities and Circular Fuels Ltd is set to establish a residual waste to renewable gas plant.

Mayor Houchen said: “It was fantastic to welcome the Secretary of State back to Teesworks after helping to kick it all off five years ago, I’m sure he’s been blown away to see how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.

“Since establishing the Development Corporation, we’ve secured all of the land previously owned by the three Thai banks following the closure of SSI. We’ve cleaned up huge swathes of the site ready for projects that will put Teesside at the forefront of the UK’s clean energy plans.

“We’ve secured Freeport status, £107m for our South Bank Quay from the UK Infrastructure Bank and spades are now in the ground on our first private sector-led investment.Of course, there’s much more to come, and today was a great opportunity to show Greg Clark around the site to discuss these big plans and how the site can play a part in levelling up not just Redcar, but the whole of our region.”