It is with a mixture of quiet pride and frustration that Matt Forrest talks about the Tees Valley. The chief executive of Middlesborough-based housing association Thirteen Group is passionate about housing-led regeneration and tackling deprivation in the region.

“I guess a lot of your readers won’t know an awful lot about the Tees Valley?” he asks Building before immediately painting a vivid picture of the region: “We’ve got these jewels in the crown, fantastic northern towns with strong, deep industrial heritage, like Stockton, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Redcar. 

“We’ve got everything from the railways to the steel, maritime and chemical [works] history, all of that going on. And there’s some absolutely wonderful things about these places – but they are also facing some of the biggest challenges with indices of deprivation anywhere in the country.”