Combined authority's improvement plan 'on track'
Tees Valley Combined AuthorityA combined authority has been told it has made good progress on its improvement targets after being placed under additional scrutiny by the government.
Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) was handed a Best Value Notice in April over concerns taxpayers' money was not being spend appropriately.
Rob Whiteman, chair of the independent advisory board tasked with helping TVCA to improve, said the authority was "on track" to hit its targets and he might recommend the government removes the Best Value Notice before summer 2026.
But Middlesbrough's Labour Mayor Chris Cooke said he did not think the board had been thorough enough in its work with TVCA.
A Best Value Notice is a formal notification of concerns about governance and value for money, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Once issued, the notice requests an authority engages with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to provide "assurance of improvement".
Mr Whiteman said much of TVCA's difficulties were down to a "misalignment" of its understanding of the terms and conditions of grants and loans agreed with development corporations.
Councillors were told interim finance director Jo Moor had carried out work to understand TVCA's potential liabilities.
But Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke said a number of the authority's actions had not been completed by their target dates.
"I think it's over 50% are not on track, and there's probably a good reason for that, they are probably very close to be done," he said.
"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 bring that back."
TVCA's director of operations Sarah Brackenborough said a new dashboard was being built to provide a better summary of how much of the improvement plan had been delivered.
"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," she said.
