The North East was a big winner in today’s budget which stuck to the ‘levelling up the country’ theme that has become a mantra of Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Teesside was named as one of the eight new Freeports while Darlington won the battle to be the location of the new Treasury department, which will mean hundreds of civil servant jobs being transferred from London during the next five years.

The Chancellor also announced a £1bn enlargement of the Town Fund Deal, a scheme which allows the 45 newly-selected areas (see below) to receive grants for infrastructure projects and he name-checked Castleford and Wolverhampton during his hour-long speech.

There were also other infrastructure investment announcements centred on low-carbon initiatives, including funding for the Holyhead Hydrogen Hub and commitments on wind power and clean energy provision. He also highlighted the imminent opening of the country’s first infrastructure bank in Leeds.

However, The Chancellor made special mention of Teesside when unveiling his flagship announcement around Freeports. The other seven successful bids were Solent, East Midlands airport, Plymouth and South Devon, Humber, Liverpool City Region, Thames (including London Gateway Port and the Port of Tilbury) and Freeport East (Felixstowe and Harwich).

He said: “I see old industrial sites being used to capture and store carbon, vaccines being manufactured, offshore wind turbines, creating clean energy for the rest of the country, all located within a Freeport, with a Treasury just down the road, and the UK infrastructure bank only an hour away.”

The government is hoping the Freeports will act as one of the major pillars of recovery post Coronavirus crisis. Those businesses operating within them will not only benefit from easier-to-operate customs rules but enjoy additional tax relief, planning freedoms and support for regeneration and innovation.

The Chancellor added: “This is a policy on a scale we’ve never done before. It’s a policy to bring investment, trade and, most importantly, jobs right across the country.”

Early reaction from business leaders appeared largely favourable and regional experts Palace Capital were one company delighted to see a budget that delivered on investment in the North.

Neil Sinclair, chief executive of Palace Capital, said: “The decision to relocate The Treasury to Darlington and set up the National Infrastructure Bank in Leeds is brilliant news. Our great Northern towns and cities have enormous potential and this move, which is a strong signal of the Government’s commitment to rebalancing Britain, ensures that the regions will be at the heart of the nation’s economic recovery efforts post Covid-19.”

Full list of Town Fund recipients – North East (total investment £46m): Middlesbrough, Thornaby-on-Tees.

North West (£211m): Preston, Workington, Bolton, Cheadle, Carlisle, Leyland, Southport, Staveley, Rochdale.

Yorkshire and Humber (£199m): Wakefield, Whitby, Scarborough, Grimsby, Castleford, Goldthorpe, Scunthorpe, Morley, Stocksbridge

East Midlands (£175m): Newark, Clay Cross, Skegness, Mablethorpe, Boston, Lincoln, Northampton, Mansfield.

West Midlands (£155m): Wolverhampton, Kidsgrove, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, West Bromwich, Burton-on-Trent, Nuneaton.

East of England (£148m): Lowestoft, Colchester, Stevenage, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Milton Keynes.

South East (£43m): Crawley, Margate.

South West (£41m): Swindon, Bournemouth.