TVCA progress could see government oversight lifted by 2026

The notice, issued earlier this year, flagged concerns about how the authority was being run and whether public money was being used wisely.

An independent advisory board now believes TVCA has made enough progress to recommend its removal in the spring, though the final decision rests with ministers.

New of the update, which came at a TVCA cabinet meeting on Friday, December 12, was cautiously welcomed by cabinet members, who cited progress made, but said there is more to be done on the journey into 2026.

Middlesbrough’s Labour Mayor Chris Cooke, however, said he did not think that the board had been thorough enough in their work with TVCA, highlighting the level of scrutiny Middlesbrough Council had undergone while they were previously under a Best Value Notice.

TVCA was slapped with the non-statutory notice back in April. The notice is a formal notification of concerns about governance and value for money and requests that the authority engages with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to provide “assurance of improvement”.

TVCA’s chief executive Tom Bryant, spoke of “really good progress” during the meeting, regarding work on actions within the organisational improvement plan, which was agreed back in the summer. 

Rob Whiteman chairs the independent advisory board, a group of people who provide assurance and give help and assistance so that TVCA can improve.

Mr Whiteman said: “The bottom line message is that we think that good progress is being made and we see sufficient progress that we would recommend to the department that, in May, you look normal enough not to have a Best Value Notice.”

He said that while the combined authority has had “difficult issues” to deal with, there is sufficient sound, robust and established governance as well as a financial plan to match.

Mr Whiteman added: “If you deliver what’s in the improvement plan and at the moment you are on target to do so, then we would be supportive of the Best Value Notice being lifted, but it’s not our decision, it’s a decision for the department.”

He went on to say two things that had come out of a recent meeting.

He highlighted “misalignment” on the understanding of terms and conditions when grants, loans, or other transactions have been agreed with development corporations.

But now, Mr Whiteman explained, interim director of finance Jo Moore had undertaken a “thorough” piece of work which had brought out “all the dirty washing” as well as understanding potential liabilities. 

He said: “I don’t want to overplay it, this is not uncommon territory for many bodies that they have to make sure that the commercials that have been agreed in the past are understood now, between all parties.

“And you’ve got some work to do with South Tees Development Corporation or bottoming out the financial implications of what’s been agreed in the past and we would want to know that we have confidence that wouldn’t happen again.”

Secondly, he spoke about the “journey” of TVCA cabinet members being able to digest the sheer quantity of information that they are provided with.

Mr Whiteman said Jodie Townsend was improving the role of monitoring officer – as is Ms Moore in finance.

He asked if cabinet members were getting enough support back in their own local councils, and asked if more assistance was needed from TVCA.

“Hopefully we can triangulate that as cabinet members, you feel better briefed between your own councils and TVCA staff on the pack of information that you’re getting,” he said

Tees Valley Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen gave his thoughts, saying there were still a lot of “ifs, buts and maybes”, meaning there was still a lot of progress to make over the coming months.

Stockton Council leader Lisa Evans (Lab) said she thought that TVCA “had come a long way” but that there is still work to be done.

Redcar & Cleveland Council leader Alec Brown (Lab), highlighted Mr Whiteman’s use of the word “normal” and spoke about the “dirty washing and the fact that we’ve got over £500m worth of liabilities”, asking what he meant by normal, in relation to other mayoral development corporations.

Mr Whiteman responded that a “good authority” would already know how liabilities will be dealt with in the medium term, with timelines on business rates and the generation of income agreed and deliverable from “inception”, rather than the current situation locally, which sees details being sorted out at the moment. 

Mr Whiteman added: “Clearly what you’ve got is some misalignment, where things are in your budget, but not in other people’s budget, or it will take longer for that business rate income to be built up, than the model that was made at inception.” 

Mayor Cooke had a somewhat more negative outlook, saying: “You say about progress, there’s only really been, it is, three actions completed in total?”

He asked what Mr Whiteman was using to base his analysis on. Mayor Cooke harked back to when Middlesbrough Council had previously been under a Best Value Notice, during which time he believed there was more “rigour” coming from their board.

Mr Whiteman said: “I don’t think it’s the job of the improvement board to keep a grip.

“Our job is to advise you whether we see you keeping a grip because our job is to say when there’s not an improvement board here any more, will the issues around improving governance, will the issues around improving finance, will progress on all of the improvement plan actions, does that look like it will get dealt with through normal governance?

“It isn’t the job of the improvement board to manage the organisation or to have grip.

“Your job is grip, and our job is to say whether or not we think there’ll be sufficient grip in the way that you operate as a combined authority, including the work of the cabinet, that the government can feel that it can lift the Best Value Notice, because you will deal with things in a usual way.”

Earlier in the meeting, Mr Bryant explained that TVCA is nearly nine months into the Best Value Notice, meaning that it is getting towards the year-mark when the government will review the notice.

He said: “My view is we are continuing to make really good progress, in terms of the improvement plan. We’ve made a lot of changes and fundamentally, at the heart of what we’re doing is embedding those changes.”

He added that TVCA was working closely with the independent advisory board as well as the team at MHCLG. Cabinet was asked to note the progress on organisational improvement action plan. 

Mayor Cooke spoke about the improvement plan update, and the number of actions that hadn’t been completed by the target dates – or hadn’t been updated – adding: “I think it’s over 50 per cent now are not on track, and there’s probably a good reason for that, they are probably very close to be done.

“But it does feel like that number continues to grow and if we are not having a better grip on it, I’m struggling to see how we can, sort of bring that back.”

Sarah Brackenborough, director of operations at TVCA responded that it was her belief that a number of dates listed had not been revisited, adding that a dashboard was being worked on, to give a summary of the position.

She added: “I’m sure you’ll appreciate that there are 47 actions in the action plan, they are not linear, some rely on other activities to take place before others can.”