A major £1bn investment in transport improvements previously unveiled by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen is under threat.

Transport investment has been placed under review by the current government after Chancellor Rachel Reeves identified a £22bn ‘black hole’ in terms of current public finances, ditching a number of previous Conservative policies.

A Labour source said commitments to spending had been made by the Conservatives that were “totally unfunded”.

And while the party remained “absolutely committed” to improving transport infrastructure in the North all planned improvement projects were being reviewed ahead of an anticipated spending review later in the year.

In January an announcement by Mr Houchen promised the largest investment made to date in improvements to road, rail and bus travel across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.

It included a “headline pledge” to create trackless trams serving several areas, which would cost £20m, and £15m towards work on a potential upgrade of the Tees Flyover.

A total of £250m was allocated for a new link road to the north of Darlington and £150m would be spent to create a new railway station at Teesside Park and improve Thornaby Station, along with the creation of a new transport interchange for the Tees Marshalling Yards on the outskirts of Middlesbrough and Stockton.

Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge, which has been out of action for long periods in recent years due to maintenance and safety issues and was previously revealed to be at risk of “catastrophic collapse”, was to receive £30m in funding.

Other allocations included £50m for improvements to the A689 corridor which links Sedgefield with Wynyard and the outskirts of Hartlepool, £40m to ease capacity constraints on the A66 between Middlesbrough and Teesport, £40m for a new platform three at Middlesbrough Railway Station, £20m to develop a station at Teesside Airport from an existing rail halt, and £15m worth of Middlesbrough Bus Station improvements.

Mr Houchen said it would transform the region into “an economic powerhouse”, bringing improved access to jobs and a “positive difference to everyone’s day-to-day travel”.

While the planned £1bn investment is under review, at this stage it is not clear if it could be pulled in its entirety or whether concessions could be made in order to preserve some schemes.

That is likely to involve representations being made by Mr Houchen’s Tees Valley Combined Authority in  negotiations with the Government and Department for Transport (DFT) officials.

Some schemes have already received planning permission, including a planned new lorry park at the Lackenby end of the Teesworks site.

A number of infrastructure projects have been axed by the new Labour government, including a two mile road tunnel near to historic Stonehenge, along with plans to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 and a scheme designed to re-open previously closed rail lines.

Tory MP Matt Vickers, who represents Stockton West, said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer refused to confirm whether Teesside would receive the planned funding when he asked about it at a recent session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

While reiterating plans for economic growth across the country, Mr Vickers said Sir Keir stopped short on confirming a figure for the region.

The MP said: “Keir Starmer and the Labour Party are already telling us what we’ve been saying all along – Labour will take Teesside for granted and leave us behind.

“Labour are prepared to see our region, its residents and local transport infrastructure fall back down the pecking order once again.”

Highlighting the Transporter Bridge in particular, he claimed its future was on a “knife edge” and a potential “exclusion zone” could eventually be required around the structure if funding to upgrade it was not forthcoming.

The funding for the Tees Valley projects spun out of the scrapping of the remaining legs of the hugely expensive HS2 high speed rail project.

It led to the drawing up of ‘Network North’, a DfT plan presented to Parliament last autumn which promised £3.9bn worth of additional investment for ‘city regions’ in the North, including Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and the Tees Valley.

In a written ministerial statement last week Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said there was a “gap between promised schemes and the money available to deliver them” amounting to about £2.9bn which had been made clear to her by officials.

A spokesman for Mr Houchen’s TVCA when approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service indicated as far as it was aware the position had not changed in terms of the planned schemes, although he was unable to offer any formal comment.

Separately, TVCA recently began a public consultation over planned walking and cycling improvements across the region, along with changes aimed at increasing bus reliability and improved road junctions for better traffic flows.