Middlesbrough FC owner Steve Gibson invites Kemi Badenoch for dinner
Plus: Autonomous 'trams' close to reality?
Another Wednesday already. The days are brighter (even if the sun has been in hiding for a week). This is the 33rd edition of The Teesside Lead.
I’m going to hijack this intro for personal use. If you’re close to Newcastle, I’m hosting a new evening with authors Alex Niven (The North Will Rise Again) and Peter Mitchell (Imperial Nostalgia) at The Alphabetti Theatre on 1st March.
The Lort Burn Specials will see Helen Charman discuss her brilliant book ‘Mother State’ with Alex, and there’ll be poetry from Sam Telford and the legendary Tom Pickard, along with experimental music from Lucy Valentine.
It’ll all be wrapped up by 9pm and you can get tickets here.
Today’s main story is from a line buried in an article last week about the Conservative Party’s polling woes. Kemi Badenoch is coming for tea round Steve Gibson’s place.
Elsewhere, Gibson’s former pal Ben Houchen provides an update on plans for “autonomous trams” for the Tees Valley.
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Middlesbrough FC owner Steve Gibson will host Kemi Badenoch for dinner at his home.
The Independent has reported the football club owner is angry over the rise in national insurance and Labour’s plans to improve worker’s rights. The paper reported that Mr Gibson wanted to discuss his opposition to the introduction of a new football regulator with Ms Badenoch.
Last week, the Conservative Party invited staff to apply for voluntary redundancy amid plummeting membership and dwindling funds. It’s the second round of redundancies at the party’s HQ since they lost last July’s election.
Donations to the Tories between July and September 2024 totalled £1.5m compared to £15.4m in the same period the previous year.
Mr Gibson - who is thought to have a net worth of £640m - supported Labour’s Chris McEwan in last year’s Tees Valley mayoral election, hosting his launch event at the Riverside Stadium.
Just weeks before polling day he publicly attacked Conservative Ben Houchen over the transfer of 90% of shares in Teesworks Ltd to private partners Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney. Gibson, who had previously been a member of the South Tees Development Corporation board, accused Lord Houchen of being “dangerous” for the economic wellbeing of the Tees Valley. “He's given away hundreds of millions of pounds without any explanation,” he said.
He also said the Conservative mayor was guilty of “giving away everything they had worked for.”
A source close to Mr Gibson told The Independent the former Labour councillor was “politically neutral”, and wanted to discuss plans for a football regulator with Ms Badenoch which are currently making their way through Parliament. Something Ms Badenoch is opposed to.
A new Independent Football Regulator will have three primary aims according to the Government: to protect the financial stability of football clubs, protect and promote the financial resilience of English football as a whole to ensure revenue is distributed through the pyramid fairly, and “to safeguard the traditional features of English football that matter most to the fans and local communities of clubs.”
The Pitch Inspection is a Substack newsletter started by investigative journalist Russell Scott and his brother, Kevin, and has been following and documenting the bill’s progress through Parliament, noting undeclared conflicts of interest from peers discussing the bill with ties to big clubs. Follow them here for more.
It’s not clear which of the three aims Mr Gibson objects to, but given his sound financial footing and long history with the club, it doesn’t appear an independent regulator would negatively impact him or Middlesbrough FC.
Teesside stories you may have missed…
⚽ A mural featuring the late Middlesbrough players Ugo Ehiogu and Sol Bamba has been unveiled
🏡 Plans for 850 new homes as part of the Skerningham garden village plan have been submitted
⛰️ Equipment was stolen from mountain rescue teams providing training in Cleveland
🐶 A dog was rescued after it was trapped on a cliff in Saltburn
Driverless ‘trams’ in Teesside closer to reality?
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has confirmed a trial for an autonomous ‘tram’ project in the region will take place at Teesside Airport.
The scheme was one of many transport projects announced a year ago as part of a “billion pound” pledge of spending, which included exploring the possibility of building a tunnel or bridge crossing the Eastern end of the river Tees.
The “billion pounds” mentioned on different projects was a rounding up of the £978m the Conservative government allocated to the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) after it cancelled the second leg of HS2. It’s the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements 2 (CRSTS2) funding for devolved combined authorities to spend on transport for the period 2027/28 to 2031/32.
However, the government allocation is on hold as part of Labour’s spending review, with a decision on final amounts expected in June.
Despite this, Lord Houchen has said TVCA will continue with the project, after its cabinet approved £20m for the scheme.
Lord Houchen told BBC Politics North recently: “We can start to roll out with the pilot, without that [funding]. But to roll them out across all five towns and have it up and running, to the extent we want, then absolutely it would require some of that additional money that has been allocated but not confirmed.”
Speaking this weekend to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lord Houchen said: “As part of the £1bn pound transport funding allocated to us by the last Government, I set out plans to bring autonomous trams to our town centres. Whilst we await a review of this funding pot, we are pressing ahead with these plans and are set to roll out a 12 month pilot at Teesside Airport before the end of this year.
“As this is underway, plans will be worked up to introduce them to our town centres by the time this pilot comes to an end.”
If successful, the pilot could lead to autonomous vehicles on town centre roads in the Tees Valley by the end of 2026.
A similar project in operation in Belfast cost roughly £100m of public funds to bring to life.
Belfast has a fleet of 34 so-called “Gliders” on two routes, while plans for the Tees Valley are for a fleet of 15 covering five town centre loops. Belfast’s Gliders run in both bus lanes and routes with mixed traffic, and it would be the same in the Tees region.
Liverpool is hoping to introduce a similar scheme to the city which it hopes to be up and running by 2028.
That’s it for another edition.
As always, I’m more than happy to receive feedback or story tips. Get in touch at teesside@thelead.uk or via BlueSky.
See you Sunday!
Leigh