Ben Houchen lied about contact with Sabic over redundancies
Plus: What are the Middlesbrough 'Town Guards'?
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Leigh
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen lied about being in contact with Sabic while they were planning to close their Olefins 6 cracker plant on Teesside, and only reached out to the Saudi Arabian company after The Teesside Lead asked for proof of their correspondence.
Sabic publicly confirmed plans to close the cracker at its Wilton site on 25 June, having notified the government of plans for redundancies nine days earlier. Lord Houchen appeared on his regular BBC Radio Tees phone-in on 6 August where he took a call from a worker at the plant who was concerned about his future.
“We’re working directly with Sabic at the moment on trying to help them around employee support,” Houchen told the worker who was being made redundant. The following week the union Unite claimed this was a “blatant lie”, and now The Teesside Lead can prove it.
I submitted an FOI request to the Tees Valley Combined Authority on 12 August asking to see “any correspondence between TVCA and/or Ben Houchen and Sabic since 1st January 2025”.
The earliest correspondence between TVCA and Sabic came three hours after that FOI request was made.
Although TVCA had been working with the government’s Department for Work and Pensions, who had been in liaison with Sabic about the redundancies, Houchen’s statement that he was “working directly with Sabic” on 6 August simply wasn’t true.
This week Lord Houchen flew to Saudi Arabia to meet senior management at Sabic. Posting on social media, he shared a video in which he said despite the cracker at Wilton closing, “We got a commitment from Sabic that they’re going to continue with their polyethylene plant in Teesside.”
The polyethylene plant neighbours the cracker. But, when Sabic announced the closure of the cracker in June, they also confirmed the polyethylene plant would remain open and get its feed stock from elsewhere.
Houchen’s trip to Saudi Arabia resulted in Sabic saying something they had already said over two months ago. “That’s a really good win,” he said of his trip.
On Friday Lord Houchen shared another clip to social media of himself in Saudi Arabia. “Big news for Teesside from Saudi Arabia,” read the caption, as he confirmed “news” that Alfanar were committed to investing £2bn into a sustainable aviation fuel project on Teesside - something which was announced two years ago.
Two months ago Alfanar confirmed plans to open a UK office for its Lighthouse Fuels project, and confirmed the £2bn investment in social media posts.
The closure of Sabic’s Olefins 6 cracker is likely to lead to the loss of more than 300 jobs.
Weekly meetings have been held between TVCA the DWP, the National Careers Service and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to provide support to workers affected by the closure, however it’s the DWP who appear to be leading this work.
As part of the FOI response, TVCA said it engages “with this group so although its not necessarily a member of the team who may email or call directly, they are fully engaged in providing any support.”
In Houchen’s first engagement with Sabic, via email three hours after my FOI was submitted, he raised concerns that the company had not been engaging with the group being led by DWP.
“Can you please let me know what’s going on and what Sabic is doing to support employees so we can assess how TVCA can help further,” he wrote.
The following morning (13 August) Sabic asked for the contact details of the person who should have been in touch with them. TVCA responded later that day with details of a civil servant who worked at the DWP.
“DWP would like more regular catch-up meetings with Sabic to make the process run smoother,” wrote TVCA to Sabic, emphasising the government’s key role in managing the redundancies.
TVCA’s press team was asked why Ben Houchen said he had been “working directly with Sabic” on BBC Radio Tees when there was no evidence to support this, as well as to confirm if the commitment from Sabic to keep their polyethylene plant - as confirmed by Houchen on a trip to Saudi Arabia - was different to the one the company had already made two months ago.
No response was received.
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What’s a ‘Town Guard’ anyway?
On account of the last edition being short, I didn’t get a chance to cover this in any way, but Ben Houchen’s announcement of Middlesbrough getting “Town Guards” really captured my imagination.
And it looks like the usual playbook of governance by press release, with details to be figured out later.
Ben Houchen and TVCA announced a “zero tolerance crackdown” on anti-social behaviour in Middlesbrough by approving £1.3m in funding to employ eight so-called “Town Guards” in the town.
Incidentally, that amount could also be used to hire 20 police officers.
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