Last remaining Tory Mayor Ben Houchen 'enjoyed' meeting Keir Starmer but says deals with British Steel and Net Zero Teesside require urgent attention
“If he does what he says he’s going to do then I’m looking forward to working with him, because I want to get stuff done.” “I said to him, there is a risk that if you delay this decision – and this decision is a matter of weeks rather than being able to hold it for a September Budget announcement – there is a genuine risk that Jingye will close the company, they will bust it and hand over the keys to the British government and say ‘you pick up the tab’.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we just write a cheque out. I think we can do this in a way that gets some firm foundations.” Ben Houchen is the only Conservative of England’s twelve metro mayors “They’ve contracted £4bn in contracts for this carbon capture facility, and those contracts have been priced for ten months.
Both delicate decisions are in the balance at the same time as Labour could ask the National Audit Office to carry out an investigation into the handling of Teesworks, the UK’s largest freeport and a flagship regeneration site.