Mayor of Tees Valley's plans and priorities for 2025
Ben Houchen has called the last 12 months as 'tumultuous'
Last updated 1st May 2025
The Mayor of Tees Valley has been telling us his plans and priorities for 2025.
Ben Houchen has called the last 12 months as 'tumultuous'.
He said: "Teesworks is going to have more multi-billion pound investments. We're going to see many more jobs being created. We'll continue to invest in our public transport systems. We're going to continue to help people get the right skills to access one of these jobs, because as I keep saying to the team, we will fail if we created all of these jobs but local people don't feel the benefit because they don't have the right skills to be able to actually get one of these well-paid jobs.
"2025 is absolutely about supporting local people but also an emphasis on small businesses as well. What we've always focussed on is large businesses trying to attract big international investors to change the future prospects of our local economy, which is happening now but actually what we need to do is give more business support to our SMEs. People want to start a business and create that real entrepreneurial feeling."
Looking back on 2024, Lord Houchen said: "From September onwards it was a bit calmer which allowed us to get back to a bit of business as usual; start getting projects up and running and start to get the whole system working again to deliver the priorities that we want. But it feels like it's been a lost year really in the sense that it's been very election-focussed, but therefore it's taken resources away and effort away from being able to do the things we had to do, which is deliver for local people.
"One achievement I think is being re-elected back in May and that was a significant feat, so on a personal level, that's certainly a highlight of mine. But as we know after that, we managed to finally get, after seven years, sign off on the Net Zero Teesside project, which will be the world's first carbon capture storage facility, a £6 billion investment with more than 4,000 jobs locally. It's absolutely game changing for our local area."
The Government's bus fare cap rise is now in effect, rising from £2 to £3. Lord Houchen added: "It was pretty essential to a lot of people across the region to be able to access skills, opportunities, to be able to access job training. All of those things will continue with some funding that we've got to be able to provide anybody 21 and under with a £1 cap, so that allows them to access the training they need to get one of these jobs to be able to get around our region."