Ben Houchen

In 2019, he appeared on LBC's list of the 'Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives', at number 100.

In January 2019, Houchen announced that a deal had been reached to acquire 1,420 acres of land on the STDC site from Tata Steel Europe. The acquisition was signed off in February 2019.

As part of his mayoral campaign, Houchen promised to bring Durham Tees Valley Airport back into public ownership. In December 2018 Houchen announced that a £40million deal to buy the airport had been reached with The Peel Group. The acquisition was unanimously approved by the Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet in January 2019.

In December 2018 Houchen announced a £40 million deal had been agreed to buy Peel Airports' 89% majority shareholding in Durham Tees Valley Airport, bringing the airport back into public ownership for the first time since it was sold to Peel in 2003. On 24 January the plan was unanimously approved by the Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet.

Purchasing the airport was Houchen's primary election pledge in his campaign in the 2017 Tees Valley mayoral election.

Houchen was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for Mayor of the Tees Valley in December 2016.

Houchen was a councillor on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, representing Yarm ward, between 2011 and 2017. In 2012 he stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in the Middlesbrough by-election. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, Houchen was the Conservative candidate for the North East region.

Houchen lives in Yarm with his wife Rachel, a French teacher at Conyers School. He is the nephew of ex-professional footballer Keith Houchen who scored the equalising goal for Coventry City in the 1987 FA Cup Final.

Ben Houchen (born 9 December 1986) is an English politician serving as the Tees Valley Mayor since May 2017.