Plans for AI in Teesside have been muddied in recent months due to a row between BP and the landowners of Teesworks.
BP is seeking to build a hydrogen plant on the site, whereas the landowners want to build an AI data centre instead.
As part of correspondence published by the Planning Inspectorate, external over the row, Houchen said in a letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in August that he had the government’s “commitment” to make Teesside, including the site in Redcar, the “UK’s leading AI growth zone”.
It also published a letter from April from the then Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, which said the government was putting its “full weight” behind Teesworks becoming an AI growth zone.
When asked why Teesworks was not part of this latest AI announcement, a DSIT spokesperson said: “There have been more than 200 expressions of interest from across the country to host potential sites, and we’re naturally working closely with many of them, including Redcar, to identify the most promising to take forward.”
