The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his Spring Statement to Parliament on 15th March 2023.
At Spring Budget 2023 the government is continuing to deliver on three of the five key priorities set out by the Prime Minister in January: to halve inflation, grow the economy and get debt falling.
Key announcements for Tees Valley include:
- 12 Investment Zones will be launched across the UK, including one in Tees Valley
- Each English Investment Zone will have access to interventions worth £80million over five years, including tax reliefs and grant funding.
- Local partners within the geographies covered by the identified authorities, including Tees Valley Combined Authority, will be invited to begin discussions on hosting an Investment Zone with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and communities (DLUHC) and HM Treasury, with a view to agreeing Investment Zone proposals by the end of the year.
- The Government will provide up to £20billion funding for early deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), to unlock private investment, including on Teesside.
- A shortlist of projects for the first phase of CCUS deployment will be announced later this month. Further projects will be able to enter a selection process for Track 1 expansion launching this year, and 2 additional clusters will be selected through a Track 2 process, with details announced shortly.
- In Round 2 of the CRSTS, government is committing £8.8 for English city regions to transform their local transport networks, covering the period 2027-28 to 2031-32. Tees Valley was previously successful in securing £310million from the first round of this funding.
- More than £200million was announced for 16 regeneration projects in England. These projects have been assessed as high quality and will commence delivery later this year. This includes £20million for Redcar and Cleveland.
- New Levelling Up Partnerships, providing over £400million and bringing the collective power of government to provide bespoke place-based regeneration will take place up over 2023 and 2024-25. Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland will receive a portion of this funding with Government working with local leaders and mayors in councils and combined authorities, local businesses from all sectors, community organisations and residents to identify and address the biggest barriers to levelling up.
- A third round of the Levelling Up Fund will proceed as planned later in 2023 with a further £1 billion to level up places across the UK.
- In the Levelling Up White Paper, the government committed to negotiate trailblazer deeper devolution deals with the Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities to set the blueprint for deeper devolution across the rest of England. These deals have now been agreed, subject to ratification, and will equip these authorities with deeper and additional policy levers to deliver on their priorities, including across local transport, employment, housing, innovation and net zero.
- This includes a greater role in simplifying and integrating ticketing in local transport systems; devolution of the majority of 19+ adult skills funding to mayors; a long-term commitment to local authorities retaining 100% of their business rates; and, for the first time outside of London, local leaders will now be able to set the strategic direction over the Affordable Housing Programme in their areas.