Not true!
Houchen has a transport budget, he has to spend it on Tees Valley transport. He chose to spend the majority of it on the airport. Whats interesting is in the news just this past week, the Metro Mayor of Manchester have taken control of the whole bus network, enabling the local people to get about in the Manchester region cheaply but more importantly at a time and to a place the public want to go.
Houchen instead put on a Mini bus called Tees Flex that no one travels on, because he spends the transport budget on an airport less than 1% of the population uses.