Michael Gove has refused to set a deadline for an independent report on allegations of “corruption, wrongdoing and illegality” at Teesworks, the industrial development within the government’s high-profile freeport project. The levelling up secretary ordered a review into financial dealings and governance at the joint venture between Tory Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen’s South Tees Development Corporation and companies run by two local developers. After political anger that Gove had declined to act on calls to bring in the National Audit Office to lead the investigation – instead announcing that it would be undertaken by an…
