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1 month ago | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Patrick Maguire |Gabriel Pogrund |Peter Morris
This fascinating book*, full of revelations, is the story of two men who seized control of the Labour Party from the left after Jeremy Corbyn’s general election defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson in 2019.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
The government is expected to make a decision soon on whether to order a value-for-money investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) into South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) and the troubled Teesworks regeneration site.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
My colleague Peter Sagar’s reflexions on the death of US President Jimmy Carter and his visit to Tyneside in 1977 re-awaken my own memories of that day and its aftermath. If readers will allow what is a purely personal indulgence, I will share my own somewhat hazy reminiscences. As a political reporter on the Evening Chronicle at that time I had been allocated a seat in the Press section outside Newcastle Civic Centre to hear the speeches by President Carter and UK Prime Minister James Callaghan.
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Dec 23, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
Local groups in the North East have been allocated a total of £675,000 by the government from the Common Ownership Fund (COF) for a village hall and a dementia garden. Middleton-in-Teesdale Village Hall has been allocated £436,200 for its building from the Fund and Cramlington Town Council will receive £239,056 for Coronation Park Dementia Garden. They are among 85 successful applicants across the UK whose bids were successful in the latest round of COF bidding.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
Independent auditors have found “significant weaknesses” at South Tees Development Corporation (STDC). They are still investigating potential non-compliance with laws and regulations but have not found anything to report so far. The auditors, Mazars, based in London, say they have not had time to complete their work on the STDC’s accounts because of a 13 December backstop date imposed by the government for the audit of public sector accounts for the financial years up to an including 2022-23.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
More money for councils, starting next year and targeted at deprived areas, and a reform of the local government funding system have been announced by the government. There will be a new £600mn Recovery Grant for areas most in need, a £680mn increase in the Social Care Grant and a new £250mn Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
The UK’s news environment is in danger of fracturing irreparably along social, regional and economic lines within the next five to ten years, with grim implications for our society and democracy, a House of Lords report published today warns. “The outlook for some areas is concerning,” says The Future of News, the first report of the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee’s inquiry into “The Future of News: Impartiality, Trust and Technology”.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
English local government is unstable, under-funded, disempowered and unscrutinised. These problems have been gradually mounting for decades and the resulting crisis was the subject of a fresh focus at a seminar at CURDS, Newcastle University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, this week. Local government, in the words of one speaker, is no longer local and no longer government.
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Yvonne Wancke |Peter Morris
People in the North East, especially its politicians and media, complain often and understandably that the region lies at or near the bottom of national league tables in a wide range of areas that really matter – employment, educational attainment and healthy life expectancy, to name but three.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
northeastbylines.co.uk | Peter Morris
The Teesworks scandal has set back Tees Valley Combined Authority’s (TVCA’s) hopes of a double funding boost, it has emerged from Budget documents published or updated by the government. The area was in line for a so-called Integrated Settlement, which would have given Mayor Lord Ben Houchen and his cabinet greater freedom to decide how to use their funding, and to have an Investment Zone confirmed. But neither materialised in the Budget.
