About Us
Background Information  

Background Information

The Stockton - Middlesbrough Initiative is the long-term framework that will bind together every development in the towns over the next 20 years. It is jointly led by Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough Councils, and is backed by a range of partner organisations from throughout the North East.

Our overall aim is:

To create and develop a new city-region within the Tees Valley that will

  • be more competitive than Stockton and Middlesbrough acting separately
  • aim to perform at the national average rate of economic performance within a 20-year period and deliver a city-region as competitive as the best in the Northern Way.

Strategic Context - The Northern Way

The government's growth strategy, Moving Forward: The Northern Way, outlines the new regeneration framework for the whole of the north. As one of eight city-regions identified in The Northern Way, the Tees Valley must take this opportunity.

We must create the right environment to thrive and be competitive on a regional, national and international level. To do this, the Tees Valley must develop itself as a distinctive high-quality city-region.

However, the lack of a coherent city-scale presence at the geographical core of the Tees Valley will continue to hold back its development unless it is addressed in a strategic and collaborative way.

The task is to create a place in which people want to invest, live, work and visit. This means focusing on the key things that can transform the area and doing them well. Size matters when it comes to asset building, but it is vital that the assets created here are of sufficient quality to be truly competitive.

By creating a green-blue heart of land and water-based assets within the urban core of the Tees Valley, the Stockton - Middlesbrough Initiative is moving towards the creation of a genuine city-region.

A successful city needs a number of components that come together to provide a spectrum of cityness - a multi layered approach that provides a city scale environment.

To achieve genuine city status, the Stockton - Middlesbrough Initiative needs to deliver:

  • a regional approach to cityness - embracing the whole of the Tees Valley and the North East
  • infrastructure - ensuring that the urban core is well connected, both internally within the Tees Valley and strategically with the wider North East region and beyond
  • aspirational development - creating and attracting high-quality city scale assets
  • culture and community - creating a vibrant and diverse urban core where people want to invest, live, work and visit
  • an interplay between landscape and water - seizing the opportunity to deliver a radical new landscape as a key signature for the city-region
  • sport and leisure - building on existing assets, with the River Tees at its heart
  • new industry - keeping the old and embracing the new to develop a new industrial landscape by harnessing the potential of the universities, skill base and land supply/infrastructure
Strategic Context