Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)

I think the noble Lord needs to hear my arguments first and then, when he comes to speak and in Committee, he can challenge them. The reality is that in the north-east we have really suffered. The then chair of the PAC called the newly elected mayors to advise them of the challenges they faced because the normal auditing process was not available to them, and that they would therefore have to make sure that they brought in people who understood the challenge of auditing books for public and private co-operation events and projects. Some of them took notice. Unfortunately, the Tees Valley mayor did not. Had there been robust arrangements then, we would not have had the difficult circumstances that people in the Tees Valley have faced since. We now have the totally unjustified position of an arrangement having been made behind closed doors, with nobody aware of it, between two individuals and their families—they now live in Dubai, so even the money going to them is not being spent in the region any more—where the 50% public and 50% private benefit from any investment made was changed to 90% private and 10% public. This means that any investment and any return on that investment does not now go to local people; it goes to two developers who now live in Dubai and do not even spend that money locally any more. We also have the position where land in the Tees Valley is earmarked for the major investment of a data centre. The Government are faced with a data centre they need and the public not being able to get the advantage of that investment. The mayor should rethink and renegotiate. I hope that by introducing the measures in the Bill, the Government will be able to make sure the public in the north-east actually get some benefit from the Government’s investment in that area.