Background
SMI illustrates the commitment of the two Councils to work more effectively together to create a central urban area for the Tees Valley which will embrace both town centres, key regeneration projects and contain the type and quality of facilities a successful and growing region requires.
The initiative will assist coordination of delivery and marketing of development in the two towns. It will lead on development in the attractive river corridor area between them.
The overall ambition is to create and develop a new city region within the Tees Valley which 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.
- Develop the intervening river corridor in a way that effectively links the two towns rather than being perceived as a gap between them.
Strategic context
The Government’s growth strategy, Moving Forward, the Northern Way outlines the regeneration framework for the whole of the north. As one of eight city regions identified in the report the Tees Valley is determined to take this opportunity.
The lack of a coherent city-scale presence at the geographical heart of the Tees Valley was identified as an impediment to its development and one that needs to be addressed in a concerted way.
To achieve genuine city status the Stockton Middlesbrough Initiative needs to deliver:
- Infrastructure – ensuring the urban core is well connected both internally within the Tees Valley and strategically throughout the North East 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.
- Building on the interplay between landscape and water along the river corridor to create a new landscape as a key destination for the city region.
- Sport and leisure – building on existing assets particularly around the River Tees and Tees barrage.
