Why hasn't Teesworks been granted AI Growth Zone status?
PLUS: How information about Google investing on Teesside became public
Regional mayor Kim McGuinness was celebrating the announcement of an AI Growth Zone by the government on her patch this week. It’s something Ben Houchen has been chasing for Teesside, leading to a quite public spat with BP over land at Teesworks, as well as putting two government departments at loggerheads.
This edition (number 71 if you’re keeping count) will look at why the announcement for an AI Growth Zone was given to the Labour mayor instead of the Tory one.
For paid subs, I provide a critical analysis of how a story about Teesworks most likely appeared in The Times last week.
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Leigh
The embargoed press release came in on Tuesday afternoon… the government was announcing its first AI Growth Zone the following day. It’s something everybody who’s been following the story had been expecting for a while.
There had been news stories the week before confirming just as much… or so we thought. “Hold on,” I thought, “this announcement of £30bn of investment, and a potential 5,000 jobs makes no mention of Teesside.”
And so the combined authority up the A19 had stolen a march on what was supposed to be Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen’s big thing.
“We’re leading the way,” wrote North East mayor Kim McGuinness on social media, but hold on - what about Teesside?
Over the last few months it seemed likely the Tees Valley would get the first AI Growth Zone after the government invited bids from local authorities back in February. Teesworks and the public South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) had gone so far as to publicly object to well-advanced plans for BP’s H2Teesside hydrogen plant on their land, after inviting the oil giant to develop their project there in the first place.
An application for permission for an AI data centre on the same plot of land as H2Teesside was rushed through and granted on 1 August - the deadline day for submissions to the secretary of state - Ed Miliband - who was deciding on the hydrogen plant.
In their arguments against the hydrogen plant, Teesworks and STDC’s lawyers have argued their bid for an AI Growth Zone was more viable than plans from BP, whose main off-taker of hydrogen from the plant - Sabic - would no longer be needing it after closing the Olefins 6 cracker plant.
Just a few days before the announcement of the first AI Growth Zone at Blyth and Wallsend, The Times (incorrectly) reported that the government “earlier this summer granted the [Teesworks] site AI Growth Zone status.”
So why hasn’t it been announced?
The omission of Teesside in the press release set alarm bells off for me. The headlines will say “£30bn investment in the North East”, but should they really say “Teesside snubbed”?
It doesn’t look that way, at least for now.
For the last few weeks, a letter from former Science, Innovation and Technology secretary Peter Kyle voicing his support for Teesworks’ bid for an AI Growth Zone has been reported on. Teesworks even submitted it last week as evidence to Ed Miliband while he decides the fate of H2Teesside.
Sent on 8 April, Kyle said the Government “will put its full weight behind Teesworks and Teesside International Airport becoming an AI Gowth Zone”. While Houchen et al have been touting the letter as confirmation of the AI Growth Zone coming to Teesside, a different reading of exactly the same words might say the government will collaborate with Tees Valley Combined Authority in order to make the Teesworks site a good fit for AI Growth Zone status.
But that’s entirely academic, since Peter Kyle is no longer secretary of state responsible for AI Growth Zones after Sir Keir Starmer was forced into a Cabinet reshuffle at the beginning of this month.
A cynic might say the leaking of Kyle’s letter was an attempt to force his successor, Liz Kendall, into upholding his promises.
Having spoken to people in government, my impression is Teesside’s AI Growth Zone is not dead in the water, and that the conflict between Peter Kyle and Ed Miliband earlier this year has been put on ice with Kyle’s removal from the department.
It now looks like the Development Consent Order process to decide the fate of H2Teesside is being given space to come to its own conclusion, and Teesside’s AI Growth Zone plan will follow in some shape or form depending on the outcome of that decision.
When Redcar MP Anna Turley shared the news of the AI Growth Zone up the A19 on her Facebook, one commenter said: “Absolutely nothing to do with Teesside”. She replied: “Just watch this space”.
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Comms Ops: What’s in a byline?
“Have you seen this story in The Times?”, came the message from one of the editors I write for. “Written by David Collins,” they added.
I went and found the article, which revealed Google were in talks to build the proposed AI data centre at Teesworks, but another journalist’s name appeared on the byline alongside that of Collins.
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