Houchen served as a
Councillor on
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, representing
Yarm Ward, between
2011 and 2017. In 2012 he stood as the
Conservative parliamentary candidate in the
Middlesbrough by-election, finishing fourth of eight candidates with 1,063 votes (6.3%), only three votes ahead of the
Peace Party. In the
2014 European Parliament elections, Houchen was the Conservative candidate for the
North East region. Houchen was selected as the
Conservative Party candidate for
Tees Valley Mayor in December 2016. Houchen would go on to win the
2017 Tees Valley mayoral election. Upon taking office, he became
styled as
Mayor. In 2019, he appeared on
LBC's list of the "Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives", at number 100. He was accused of
pork barrel politics in the run-up to the
Hartlepool by-election of 2021. At the
2021 Tees Valley mayoral election, Houchen was re-elected with 72.8% of the vote. Nominated as a
Life Peer in
Boris Johnson's resignation honours of June 2023, on 12 July 2023, he was created
Baron Houchen of High Leven,
of Ingleby Barwick in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees.
Introduced to the
House of Lords on 24 July, where he sits on the Conservative benches, Lord Houchen of High Leven made his
maiden speech on 8 November 2023. ,
Angela Rayner and
Steve Rotheram in 2024 whilst visiting
Downing Street Houchen was
reelected for a third time in May 2024 on a reduced majority. Following his reelection, Houchen criticised prime minister Rishi Sunak, blaming him for infighting and chaos within the Conservative Party.
Teesside Airport As part of his 2017 mayoral campaign, Houchen promised to bring
Teesside International Airport (then Durham Tees Valley Airport) back into its previous name and public ownership. In December 2018 Houchen announced that a £40 million deal to buy the airport had been reached with
The Peel Group. The acquisition was unanimously approved by the
Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet in January 2019. Losses at the airport grew to £30.3 million from the 2019 to 2022 financial years, leading to Houchen ploughing a further £30 million of public money into the airport.
South Tees Development Corporation The
South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) is the first
Mayoral Development Corporation outside of London. Chaired by Houchen, the STDC area covers approximately 4,500 acres of land to the south of the River Tees, in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland, and includes the former
SSI steelworks site as well as other industrial assets. The area includes the deep-water port of
Teesport. The STDC aims to create approximately 20,000 new jobs and contribute £1 billion per annum to the UK economy by 2025. However, as of late 2021, the economic impact of the port has been described as 'speculative' by a member of the management board. In January 2019, Houchen announced that a deal had been reached to acquire 1,420 acres of land on the STDC site from
Tata Steel Europe. The acquisition was signed off in February 2019. Consequently, he was one of the figures responsible in 2021 for the controversial demolition of the landmark
Dorman Long Tower despite the granting of a
Grade II listing to the
Brutalist building. He later accused the
Historic England official who listed the structure of being a junior member of staff, who had acted without the permission of senior managers. This was later robustly denied by Historic England, who released a statement saying "The mayor’s statement is incorrect – the listing was not a mistake. Historic England advised
DCMS to list the site. Following a site visit, our advice to list the site remained the same". In November 2023, Houchen proposed the STDC area as a potential location for a
Las Vegas-style Sphere venue, after
London Mayor Sadiq Khan blocked proposals for the
MSG Sphere London on the grounds of light pollution. == 2024 Conservative Party leadership election ==