Albanian airport denies paying for controversial Ben Houchen business trip

A statement on Tees Valley Combined Authority’s (TVCA) website alongside a press release publicising the Conservative mayor’s meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says: “The trip was arranged and directly paid for by Tirana International Airport. We understand the total value of this was £1,455.76. The Tees Valley Combined Authority does not currently have commercial relationships with Tirana International Airport.”

The nominal figure of £1,455.76 was calculated by TVCA and does not meet the Electoral Commission’s threshold of £1,500 to register gifts or hospitality. However, TVCA’s constitution states all offers of gifts and hospitality to members and officers of the authority above the value of £25 have to be declared whether they’re accepted or not.

Mr Houchen’s latest publicly available declaration of interests form is from August 2022 and says all offers of gifts and hospitality are “as disclosed, past and present, to the Electoral Commission,” apparently in contravention of the rules set by the combined authority that he leads.

Before publication of our original story, a spokesperson for TVCA told The Yorkshire Post: “This was an official TVCA trip which was intended to be paid for by TVCA, however, Tirana International Airport then offered to pay for it.

“The Mayor attended on behalf of the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

“In compliance with the Members’ code of conduct, advice from the Monitoring Officer was sought at the time and it was advised that on the basis of the above, a statement should be placed on the website for the purposes of openness and transparency and that there was no need to register this in the register of interests or with the Electoral Commission.”

A Monitoring Officer is a statutory position in local authorities whose role is “to report on matters they believe to be illegal or amount to maladministration, to be responsible for matters relating to the conduct of councillors and officers and, to be responsible for the operation of the council’s constitution.”

When asked to provide proof of the advice from their Monitoring Officer, TVCA’s press team refused to do so.

They have also refused to provide a full itinerary of the trip despite conflicting reports online of dates of meetings.

The Teesside delegation to Albania was made up of Ben Houchen, a TVCA press officer, Teesworks CEO Martin Corney, and Corney’s Albanian son-in-law Orion Kotrri.

Businessmen including Corney acquired a 90% stake in the public-private Teesworks Ltd after the publicly-owned South Tees Development Corporation, chaired by Ben Houchen, transferred the majority of its shares to them for free. Kotrri is believed to be sub-contracted by Teesworks to remove thousands of tonnes of scrap metal from the former Redcar steelworks site.

TVCA has shown The Yorkshire Post what it claims to be an email from TIA which confirms the payment. TIA is yet to confirm it’s veracity.