Tees Valley Mayor: Former steelworks will be down “within a year”

A multi-million pound demolition plan is set to begin at a former North East steelworks site in coming weeks.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has today (June 21) revealed that demolition of all major steel making facilities at the former Redcar Steelworks will start within a matter of weeks, with a commitment that every structure will be down within a year.

The £113m project will see all of the old iron and steelmaking plants demolished, with contracts for their demolition appointed by August.

Mayor Houchen commented: “The blast furnace has dominated Redcar’s skyline for the past 40 years but now we must move on, bring it down and look forward to the site’s bright future.

“I’m not letting anything get in the way of creating the high-quality, well-paid jobs people are crying out for. That’s why we’ll be signing up local businesses to get on site as early as August to demolish the remaining buildings, with the buildings and structures down within a year – way ahead of our original schedule.

“The sooner the site is cleared, the sooner we can get on with transforming it and realise its potential as a powerhouse for clean energy and advanced manufacturing, creating thousands of good-quality, well-paid jobs for local people.”

Cllr Mary Lanigan, leader of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, added: “This is about developing our world-class industrial site for both today and the future. It is crucial work which will help us attract investment from around the globe which could bring high-quality jobs for generations to come and I would like to thank everyone involved.

“As someone from a steel family myself – like so many in our borough – I can’t pretend there isn’t an emotional impact at seeing some of our former steel industry buildings being demolished. But those industries were new and cutting edge once and now we must be looking to the industries of the future once again.”