Ben Houchen urged to reveal purpose of £13,000 staff trip to Cannes
TVCA staff held no meetings on expenses-paid French trip
Another week just flying past, and it’s edition number 53 of The Teesside Lead.
This week’s edition is a follow-up to a story I did just over a month ago for paid subscribers. If I’m being honest, it feels like a pretty significant development, and on a personal level I’m very proud of this story - it’s something I’ve been able to get across the line while working full-time on other stuff as well as going through Crohn’s-related ill health.
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For subscribers this week I’ll be trying to tread the fine line between letting you see behind the curtain and revealing how a sausage gets made in graphic detail, as I write-up the process of FOIs and pushing back which lead to the main story in today’s newsletter.
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Leigh
Labour MPs on Teesside have called on Ben Houchen to explain the purpose of a £13,000 staff trip to the south of France, as The Teesside Lead can reveal there’s no evidence of any work being undertaken during the visit.
I revealed last month how Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) sent two members of staff to the MIPIM conference in Cannes in March, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of around £13,000. After stalling its response to a separate freedom of information request, TVCA has now confirmed it holds no information about any meetings held or attended by its staff at the event.
When asked about the purpose of the trip, TVCA’s press team continued its long-standing policy of not responding to questions from The Teesside Lead.
Redcar’s Labour MP Anna Turley said she was “amazed” to hear about a trip to the south of France, “at the expense of Teesside tax payers which appears to have had absolutely no justification at all.”
MIPIM is an annual global real estate conference held in Cannes. This year’s event was held between March 11 and 14 and was attended by numerous British local authorities. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham used the event to announce plans to redevelop Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium, while Newcastle City Council used the platform to reveal plans for its new AirLink cargo hub at Newcastle Airport.
According to an earlier FOI request submitted by The Teesside Lead, TVCA spent €8,500 (around £7,350) to hire a stand at the trade show, and sent two members of staff. Travel and accommodation cost a total of £5,518.03.
During the same week TVCA sent five members of staff to SXSW in Austin, Texas, spending £18,705.02 on travel and accommodation for their delegation. Unlike MIPIM, TVCA played an active role in promoting the region’s music at events in the United States.
Another FOI request has revealed TVCA held meetings in Austin with Austin Film Studios and “officials from the city of Austin’s regeneration team”, as well as attending government events and meetings “with potential developers and investors”.
Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, told The Teesside Lead that Conservative mayor Ben Houchen should explain the purpose of the French trip.
“I want to see the best of Tees Valley promoted around the world,” he said, “but when there is a cost to local residents, Lord Houchen must set out why he is spending thousands on events like MIPIM in the south of France.”
There have been serious concerns about value for money arrangements at the combined authority since the transfer of 90% of shares in the Teesworks Ltd company to private partners for no cost. A government inquiry - the Tees Valley Review - was launched after Mr McDonald suggested there might be “industrial-scale corruption” at the redevelopment of the Redcar steelworks when speaking in Parliament.
That review, published in January 2024, found no evidence of criminality, but made a remarkable 28 recommendations to improve decision-making and transparency.
In April this year, secretary of state Angela Rayner issued a Best Value Notice to TVCA in order to ensure the authority continued to work on improving its governance according to the recommendations made last year.
Subsequently, TVCA’s external auditors, EY, wrote to Ms Rayner with concerns about a “lack of engagement” from the authority when trying to complete its audit of 2023/24’s accounts.
EY accepted the impact of the Tees Valley Review on TVCA’s ability to report in a timely way while the review was ongoing. But it said the lack of engagement which took place at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 showed the authority’s inability to deliver value for money was “ongoing and significantly impacting on the Authority’s ability to meet its statutory reporting obligations.”
Mr McDonald also said: “Surely any such expenditure - such as £13,000 - must have a reporting process built in, and an explanation of how it was of value to the taxpayers across the Tees Valley.
“Without that transparency and explanation people are entitled to wonder whether the only benefit was to those who went on this expenses paid trip.
“It is not too late to set out the merits of these trips and I urge the Mayor to do so.
“But the lack of any such account is why there are concerns around governance, financial mismanagement and procurement at TVCA and why both the previous Conservative government and the current Labour government have had no option other than to put the authority in special measures.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the government department which issued the Best Value Notice to TVCA, refused to comment on March’s staff trip to Cannes, but they did tell me the responsibility for clear and accountable financial management practices lies with combined authorities.
Teesside stories you may have missed…
🚉 Work to replace the bridge at South Bank rail station will begin soon
🏭 A legal challenge to the decision to grant permission for Net Zero Teesside at Teesworks was quashed
⛪ A Hartlepool church tower will re-open to the public
Last September I met the nature writer Richard Smyth. We’d both ran the Great North Run for the same charity and were chatting away as we queued for the Shields ferry, and we’ve kept in touch since.
“In the north, we’re used to wildlife thriving in post-industrial habitats – flooded gravel pits, old spoil tips, rewilded opencast workings. But this isn’t post-industrial, it’s (still somehow) industrial. I drove here slack-jawed, following straight roads through steaming cities of metal architecture, what we might call industrial gothic or robot baroque.”
A few weeks ago he travelled from his home in Yorkshire to visit Teesmouth, and he’s written a beautiful piece about the wildlife and landscape there for the Guardian.
How the TVCA MIPIM story unfolded
In my relatively short career as a journalist I’ve been incredibly lucky to share newsrooms with incredible journalists who are both excellent at their jobs and generous with their time.
Writing articles is a functional aspect that’s easy to pick up, but I think getting stories includes different disciplines which change journalism from a job to a profession. It’s something I still have to learn a lot about, but it’s about patience, diligence and being organised, as much as it’s about seeing between the lines.
A lot of the time journalists will chase a thought to eliminate it as a possible story. For this week’s story about TVCA staff flying to Cannes for a few days and not having any evidence of having done any work when they were out there, it was simply a routine case of making sure all that boring evidence was there.
I’ve submitted more than 30 FOIs in the first five months of 2025. They definitely haven’t produced 30 stories.
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