Private Eye and Teesside freeport

No one has mentioned the central part of the article which is about a few businessman that have in effect gained ownership of Teesworks. Teesworks seems to at the centre of a lot of what is happening for good and bad, particularly along the south bank of the Tees covering areas controlled by R&C Council. These businessmen own 90% of Teesworks which is worth a lot more than it was originally and so made high financial gain. Teesworks appears to be have benefited from the majority of a Government funds to the tune of £250m, but these funds required private investment and management and responsibility for the project, so if they completed X they got Y. It implies Ben Houchen has backed thse guys because they are willing to take projects on and he is desperate to get things done. It reminds me of PFI that was happening 20 years ago when private contractors made a lot of money (now in rents) from buidling new hospitals and schools.

There also seems to be alot of nepotism going in with contracts given to family members without giving others a chance to tender etc say with the plant hire/excavation and security. The UK government and civil servants seem to taking a very hands off approach which is giving opportunities for bad practice.

The article doesn't really discuss the working of freeports and what is happening to the area affected e.g the clean up except dredging.
 
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SmallTown said:
You're a brexiter right? Are you aware the Tees alley received nearly £200 million from the EU redevelopment fund? Interesting to bemoan a lack of investment that you voted for
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I believe in the Norway model (no to full membership EU but yes to Single Market) , as I have stated on here before.

Over what period was this money received? and what difference did the £200m make to the Tees Valley?
 
Redwurzel said:
I believe in the Norway model (no to full membership EU but yes to Single Market) , as I have stated on here before.

Over what period was this money received? and what difference did the £200m make to the Tees Valley?
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The "Norway model" woudlnt have seen the EU invest in the Tees valley. As I said, it's bit of a hypocrisy for you to actively support something which has removed fnding for the area, than bemoan the area getting lack of funding.
 
Redwurzel said:
No one has mentioned the central part of the article which is about a few businessman that have in effect gained ownership of Teesworks. Teesworks seems to at the centre of a lot of what is happening for good and bad, particularly along the south bank of the Tees covering areas controlled by R&C Council. These businessmen own 90% of Teesworks which is worth a lot more than it was originally and so made high financial gain. Teesworks appears to be have benefited from the majority of a Government funds to the tune of £250m, but these funds required private investment and management and responsibility for the project, so if they completed X they got Y. It implies Ben Houchen has backed thse guys because they are willing to take projects on and he is desperate to get things done. It reminds me of PFI that was happening 20 years ago when private contractors made a lot of money (now in rents) from buidling new hospitals and schools.

There also seems to be alot of nepotism going in with contracts given to family members without giving others a chance to tender etc say with the plant hire/excavation and security. The UK government and civil servants seem to taking a very hands off approach which is giving opportunities for bad practice.

The article doesn't really discuss the working of freeports and what is happening to the area affected e.g the clean up except dredging.
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In summary: Houtchen has used hundreds of millions of tax payers money to buy land from Thai banks then given the land to his mates for three fifths of fcuk all. They and he will cream off their share of profits when the pirate port gets going with its tax dodging, third world working conditions and smuggling while no doubts stiffing the tax payer for more funds all the way. Have I missed anything?
 
SmallTown said:
The "Norway model" woudlnt have seen the EU invest in the Tees valley. As I said, it's bit of a hypocrisy for you to actively support something which has removed fnding for the area, than bemoan the area getting lack of funding.
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Its about the best overall solution, the Tees Valley struggled in the 40 years and it appears membership of the EU has not helped the area. I would add UK Governments have not helped much neither.

None of us know the best solution, but what we do know is change is required from the decline of the 1980s/90s/2000s/2010s. 65% of Teesside voted for that, for all sections of society.
 
ThePrisoner said:
In summary: Houtchen has used hundreds of millions of tax payers money to buy land from Thai banks then given the land to his mates for three fifths of fcuk all. They and he will cream off their share of profits when the pirate port gets going with its tax dodging, third world working conditions and smuggling while no doubts stiffing the tax payer for more funds all the way. Have I missed anything?
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Nope, that's pretty much it.
 
ThePrisoner said:
In summary: Houtchen has used hundreds of millions of tax payers money to buy land from Thai banks then given the land to his mates for three fifths of fcuk all. They and he will cream off their share of profits when the pirate port gets going with its tax dodging, third world working conditions and smuggling while no doubts stiffing the tax payer for more funds all the way. Have I missed anything?
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Would this be Mr Corney?
Who's son also seemingly owns a plant hire company which hires most of it's plant out to a lot of the ongoing work on the Teesworks site 🙃
 
Redwurzel said:
Its about the best overall solution, the Tees Valley struggled in the 40 years and it appears membership of the EU has not helped the area. I would add UK Governments have not helped much neither.

None of us know the best solution, but what we do know is change is required from the decline of the 1980s/90s/2000s/2010s. 65% of Teesside voted for that, for all sections of society.
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So you think having £200million invested is better, or worse, than not having £200 million?
 
The struggles of
Redwurzel said:
Its about the best overall solution, the Tees Valley struggled in the 40 years and it appears membership of the EU has not helped the area. I would add UK Governments have not helped much neither.

None of us know the best solution, but what we do know is change is required from the decline of the 1980s/90s/2000s/2010s. 65% of Teesside voted for that, for all sections of society.
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The struggles have nothing to do with membership of the EU and a lot to do with the policies of a succession of BRITISH governments.
Currently Ms Truss is telling us that economic growth will benefit us all. If so why the hell did we inflict damage on our economy with a hard Brexit. If her tax cut plan works, which many doubt, it will only be making up ground lost to Brexit.😡
 
chickenrunner said:
The struggles of
The struggles have nothing to do with membership of the EU and a lot to do with the policies of a succession of BRITISH governments.
Currently Ms Truss is telling us that economic growth will benefit us all. If so why the hell did we inflict damage on our economy with a hard Brexit. If her tax cut plan works, which many doubt, it will only be making up ground lost to Brexit.😡
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This seems like more of Reagans trickle down economics nonsense.
 
Redwurzel said:
Its about the best overall solution, the Tees Valley struggled in the 40 years and it appears membership of the EU has not helped the area. I would add UK Governments have not helped much neither.

None of us know the best solution, but what we do know is change is required from the decline of the 1980s/90s/2000s/2010s. 65% of Teesside voted for that, for all sections of society.
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In the 7 years before Brexit the North East received c.£200m in European Social Fund grants and c.£300m in European Regional Development Fund grants.
The NE was eligible for more but the EU grants required match funding from central Govt.
 
exiledinboro said:
The North east received £200 million in 7 years?

Thats £28 million a year for the whole of the North East
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Averaged out it was c.£71m from the EU & matched funding of £71m from central Govt annually but due to the match it could only be applied for on projects that the Govt would support.
So perhaps unsurprisingly one of the largest recipients in the NE was a private company, Pertemps People Development Group.
 
Her tax cuts will only benefit the richest and wont help those on Zero hours contracts or working families on Universal Credit. At a time when we need money to support families, the elderly and disabled - just to eat and heat - Truss intends to dump them in the gutter, leaving them to rely on food banks and "warm banks". Truss and the rest of the entire cabinet are completely out of touch. Frightening. The winter and the huge fuel bill rises are just around the corner.....
 
exiledinboro said:
To be honest I can’t be bothered to go over arguments and reasons for remaining in the EU in the year 2022

But areas like Teesside have seen an almost complete collapse in manufacturing because successive governments have followed pretty much the same economic paths which have basically outsource all manufacturing abroad and neither party has had any plan or even thought for Teesside

So you’re probably talking tens if not hundreds of billions of pounds of industry being lost in a globalised system that has negatively impacted this area and the lowest paid and in return you’re arguing the area should have been content with a few million

And btw my local roundabout was recently redeveloped and I believe it cost £15 million
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The only problem with that argument is that EU funding was available to this region, as an area in difficulty, but the governments of the last decade or more, all of the same sort, decided against applying for it, that's the same party in government that blocked EU moves to protect the steel industry.

Of course they're going to outsource, that's what the Tories do, cut wages, maximise profit, we have a national history of it.
 
Redwurzel said:
Its about the best overall solution, the Tees Valley struggled in the 40 years and it appears membership of the EU has not helped the area. I would add UK Governments have not helped much neither.
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Membership wasn't the cause of our problems in the north east or the wider UK either.
 
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