Economic Affairs Committee
15 September 2026
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Committee Actual start House of Lords
19:38 - 20:09
Speaker 1
Welcome to this meeting of the Economic Affairs Select Committee of the Lords, where we're looking at the very topical question of fiscal devolution. And we've two witnesses today who are very closely engaged in this question, representing mayoralties from different parts of the country.
So first of all, if Lord Houchen, you'd introduce yourself.
20:09 - 21:02
Speaker 2
Well, thank you, Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee for inviting me. My name is Ben Houchen. I'm currently the Mayor of the Tees Valley, first elected in May of 2017 as part of the first cohort of directly elected mayors under the Northern Powerhouse reforms of George Osborne. It's been quite a journey over the last nine or ten years. And we were just saying outside, there's a lot of confusion about whether I am a Lord Mayor, a Mayor, a Lord, or some other type of qualification.
But it's been a very significant journey and change over the last nine or ten years. I think there have been different ways in which devolution has accelerated or decelerated depending on the administration and its buy-in.
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