During discussions with the Prime Minister, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has once again pushed the case for Teesside to be the home of the UK’s first Freeport and for the Treasury’s new northern base to be set up in Teesside.
The discussion took place while Boris Johnson was in Teesside to visit Fujifilm Diosynth’s state-of-the-art BioCampus in Billingham where 60million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine will be manufactured, if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
During the talks Mayor Houchen highlighted the huge benefits the Teesside Freeport would bring to Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool as well as the UK as a whole, and how giving the bid the green-light would play a crucial role in the region recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Teesside Freeport bid is designed to turbo-charge what the region already has a world-renowned reputation for excellence in, such as manufacturing, engineering, chemicals and processing.
The new free-trade zone could create more than 18,000 skilled, good-quality, well paid jobs over the next 5 years and boost the local economy by £3.2billion. It would also increase inward investment into Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool by over £1.4 billion.
Covering 4,500 acres, the equivalent of 2,550 football pitches, the Teesside Freeport will be the biggest in the UK.
Mayor Houchen also pushed the case for the Treasury’s new northern economic campus, dubbed ‘Treasury North’ to be established in Teesside.
As part of plans to relocate 22,000 civil servants out of London by 2030, the government is looking for a site where it can build a state-of-the-art campus for 750 senior Whitehall officials from the Treasury.
In a bid to secure the jobs for Teesside Mayor Houchen has put forward a number of locations to the Cabinet Office who are overseeing the move.
Making the case to the Prime Minister, Mayor Houchen highlighted the fact that, not only would moving senior civil servants from London to Teesside give policymakers a broader outlook and therefore lead to better policy, it would improve the aspirations of young people across Teesside and show the government’s levelling up agenda really is delivering for local people.
The Mayor’s bid to secure Treasury North for Teesside has won widespread support over recent months from political leaders, businesses and both Teesside University and Durham University, as well as local people.
Commenting Mayor Houchen said: “It was great to be able to yet again welcome the Prime Minister to Teesside. While he was here seeing the amazing work our local scientists and businesses are doing to fight the coronavirus, I also had the opportunity to discuss our two big asks of government – our Freeport bid and securing Treasury North.
“The Prime Minister absolutely gets how important these two projects are, both to building back better as we recover from the coronavirus and also to the government’s levelling up agenda.
“During our discussion I made clear that if the Prime Minister wants to get all the benefits out of the Civil Service relocation, the Treasury – the most important and powerful department - cannot simply be moved from more metropolitan city to another such as Newcastle, Leeds or Manchester it needs to come to Teesside.”
