Financial consultants netting £40k to sort out combined authority mess

Accounts for 2023-24 at Tees Valley Combined Authority yet to be published

With so much instability and unpredictability in the world, one can always apparently anchor themselves with the fact that Tees Valley Combined Authority will always appear to be in turmoil. So I guess thank God for that?

If you want to support my work just sign up for a free subscription to get The Teesside Lead into your inbox twice a week. If you’re able to support financially, an annual sub is just £49.

The best way to support, is by sharing the stories you read here.

Get in touch if you have any story tips at teesside@thelead.uk or via Bluesky.

Leigh

---

Last Sunday’s edition saw me take a look at what was happening with Council Tax across the Tees Valley, with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council set to vote on their budget later in the week.

A 4.99% increase in Council Tax was approved with 32 councillors voting for, one against and 19 abstaining. The majority of those abstentions came from the Conservative group who shifted their position from opposed at the last minute.

---

You may have woken up on Friday morning rolling over to look at your phone and expecting to see the result of the Gorton and Denton by-election. If this was you, you might be interested to see The Lead’s Zoë Grünewald has written up an excellent analysis on the result as the sun came up over Manchester.

Gorton and Denton by-election: The silent majority isn't silent, and it isn't Reform

---

Tees Valley Combined Authority (Image: Leigh Jones)

Tees Valley Combined Authority has paid at least £39,500 to financial consultants it has hired to help review poor bookkeeping that’s lead to the authority not publishing accounts for the last two years.

In December, I reported that TVCA’s auditors had warned concerns around governance and value for money at the authority remained, despite claims to the contrary. They were due to report their audit to February’s meeting of the Audit & Governance Committee, but have been unable to conclude the audit, missing the deadline.

It means TVCA has now missed the deadline to publish its accounts for two years in a row, with those for 2023-24 remaining unpublished.

Auditors EY said there was an “inability to locate key accounting records” at the authority.

“Challenges included difficulty in obtaining appropriate schedules, listings and breakdowns for balances within the Statement of Accounts,” they wrote, “for example balances as at 31 March 2025, rather than details of movements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 and a detailed fixed asset register, rather than listing of expenditure costs capitalised.”

Alarmingly, loan agreements between TVCA and the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), which has oversight of the Teesworks project, were unsigned, meaning their terms were not legally enforceable.

In relation to STDC and the Teesworks project, EY said they raised concerns around “the accounting for the sale and leaseback and operating agreement for the New Quay” - that which is adjacent to the SeAH factory at Teesworks. As well as general “accounting for expenditure incurred in relation to the Teesworks site”.

After raising these concerns, EY were told by interim financial chief Jo Moore that “there was a reasonable probability that material misstatement existed within the draft financial statements” in relation to these concerns. TVCA promised to provide EY with a review by the end of November 2025, but when they were unable to unpick the financial mess by this date, they promised to provide an update to the auditors by mid-January this year.