The Tees Valley mayor has set out why he doesn't want to take on powers overseeing local police and fire services. Conservative Ben Houchen was in front of a parliamentary committee on Tuesday September 16, discussing the devolution bill currently going through parliament .

He was quizzed on several topics, including planning powers and the impact of town and parish councils. He spoke about the government’s ambitions to line up varying boundaries to enable mayors to be in charge of additional services, but said that in his view, the mayoral role shouldn’t include overlooking the police.

Rather, he believed success in many of the combined authorities had come from a “narrow remit”, which is focussed on economic regeneration, investment and job creation. Instead of broader powers, Mayor

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