Member Article

Council leader welcomes Tees Valley devolution deal but remains critical about lack of support

Councillor Sue Jeffrey, Labour Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council,has welcomed the decision of a full meeting of the Borough Council to support the Tees Valley devolution deal, which was signed by local councils last week.

However, Cllr Jeffrey has criticised what she said was “a divided opposition including leading Tories who seem not to comprehend the importance of the agreement to deliver economic growth for the whole of the Tees Valley and who focused instead only on narrow parochial issues.”.

She said: “What we were supporting was a bespoke deal fit for the Tees Valley. It was an agreement which was focused entirely on Economic Development and Growth powers that are currently exercised by Whitehall. It brings with it £450m of extra funding over 30 years – that is £15m a year – more than any other deal has negotiated per head of population.”

The deal provides for a Tees Valley investment fund – this is money currently coming to the Tees Valley and spent by Government – put into a single pot for us to spend local, in ways that we think are best. It is this pot that will be topped up with the additional £15m each year.“

“It also gives us the freedom to direct spending of European generation cash - something previously run centrally by Whitehall. This means we can deal directly with the European Commission to see that cash from Brussels benefits our Borough, and is not skewed by the whim of government civil servants.”

“It sets up a new Development Company to oversee the bringing into beneficial use for housing or employment of acres of derelict or under developed brownfield land on Teesside. This is especially relevant at the present time given the issues at SSI, and with massive amounts of employment land between Redcar and Grangetown which needs remediation.”

“The agreement also comes with new powers in terms of post 16 education and training, crucial given the need to ensure our people can access new jobs as they are created. They include full control of funding for Adult Skills (post 19), support to drive more quality apprenticeships, proposals to transform standards in education and skills and the opportunity in partnership with the DWP to totally revamp and redesign the much disliked “Work Programme” so that it can better support those who are finding most difficult to get jobs.”

“Despite this Deal being part of the Government’s flagship devolution policy it was won largely because of support from Labour Councillors who after considerable debate agreed this was the only offer on the table that would support economic growth and bring new jobs to the Tees Valley. I have to say that during the course of the meeting I was shocked at the attitude of much of our opposition including the Conservatives who failed to understand the detail of the Deal and focused only on the proposals for a Mayor. “

“I as much as anyone know that this is not an agreement that gives us everything we wanted and it has to be set in the context of more cuts to welfare and to public services. But it is a start and we have to be inside fighting our corner. Glorious Isolation and opposition may be comforting for some councillors, but it will not help a single newly unemployed steelworker or a local apprentice or college student.

“At the end of the day the Tees Valley, from Loftus to Darlington, is a single economic area and we need proper Tees-wide economic policies to be effective. I hope that now this decision has been made we will all get behind it and work to make sure that the government delivers on its promises and that devolution is given a chance to make the real difference to our economy that we so desperately need.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .