Steph McGovern speaks out on Middlesbrough: ‘The real issue goes much deeper than this’

Middlesbrough-raised broadcaster and business journalist Steph McGovern has spoken out after an extraordinarily difficult week for the town, arguing that criminal behaviour must be dealt with firmly but that punishment alone will not address the conditions in which serious crime can take root.

Her comments follow a series of incidents that have put Middlesbrough and the wider Cleveland area under intense national scrutiny. On Saturday 22 August, five young men and two Cleveland Police officers died in a head-on collision on the A66 after a Volkswagen Passat being pursued by police travelled the wrong way and collided with an armed response vehicle. Police subsequently announced arrests connected with serious and organised crime investigations.

In the days that followed, further incidents included arson, vehicles being driven into properties and a stabbing, while more than 200 additional officers were brought into the Cleveland Police area. A separate house fire in Grangetown killed a woman and her seven-year-old niece. Although the fire and the A66 crash were initially discussed amid the same wider period of violence, police later confirmed that the two fatal incidents were unrelated.

Against that backdrop, McGovern, who grew up in Middlesbrough and remains involved with schools, colleges, charities and community groups in the area, said there was no question that people responsible for crimes should face consequences.

“The criminals need to be punished. There is no doubt about that. But don’t think that solves what is at the heart of this.”

She argued that the story of Middlesbrough cannot be understood solely through crime statistics or the events of one week.

“Middlesbrough is a town that’s been woefully neglected by successive governments and politicians of all flavours for decades.”

There is hard evidence behind her concern about deprivation. The Government’s 2025 English Indices of Deprivation found that Middlesbrough had the highest proportion of neighbourhoods in England falling within the most deprived 10% nationally: half of the borough’s neighbourhoods. Middlesbrough Council’s own analysis shows four wards, Newport, North Ormesby, Brambles and Thorntree, and Berwick Hills and Pallister, within the most deprived 1% nationally.

The same national dataset placed Middlesbrough second in England when local authorities were ranked by average deprivation score. It also recorded 37.5% of the population living in income-deprived households, 23.3% of working-age adults living in employment-deprived households, and 55.2% of children living in income-deprived households.

McGovern described seeing that deprivation through her own work with a youth charity in the community affected by recent events.

“There are kids in this area who don’t have adequate shoes or clothes, who don’t have access to basic sanitary products, who are often hungry and who rarely leave the estate they live in even for a day trip.”

Her statement also places the present situation in the longer economic history of Teesside. Middlesbrough and its neighbouring communities were built around heavy industry, particularly iron, steel, chemicals and engineering. The loss and contraction of those industries removed large numbers of secure jobs and changed the routes into employment that had supported generations of families.

McGovern, who began her own career as an engineering apprentice before moving into business journalism and broadcasting, said accepting industrial change did not mean accepting that communities should simply absorb its consequences.

“Rather than throwing those workers onto the scrap heap we should have put things in place to help them transition to industries doing well through training decent infrastructure and life-long learning reskilling.”

She also challenged an education system she believes places too narrow an emphasis on academic attainment, arguing for stronger vocational routes, work experience and genuine parity between different forms of learning.

“We need education to help people find out what they are good at and what type of work they could do with those skills.”

McGovern was careful not to present deprivation as an excuse for criminality. Instead, she argued that understanding the environment in which young people are recruited or groomed into organised crime is necessary if communities want to prevent the next generation following the same route.

“None of this excuses their behaviour but it is important context to help explain why it is so prolific.”

That distinction matters. The overwhelming majority of people living in Middlesbrough are not involved in serious crime, and recent national coverage has also captured residents pushing back against portrayals of their communities as inherently lawless. Community organisations, volunteers, teachers, care workers, probation staff, businesses and charities continue working across the town while many residents are grieving and frightened.

McGovern paid tribute to those people too, highlighting entrepreneurs creating jobs, overstretched charities and public-service workers trying to support young people.

Her conclusion was ultimately a demand for something more durable than a short-term response to a week of terrible headlines: investment in skills, education, jobs and the institutions that give people routes into a different future.

“Places like Middlesbrough need meaningful investment decent reskilling training jobs and an education system fit for purpose.”

But Middlesbrough is more than the statistics, and it is more than the events of one terrible week.

Across the town, people are still opening businesses, running community groups, teaching young people, volunteering, creating art, coaching teams, caring for neighbours and quietly making things better. Much of that work never becomes a headline.

McGovern’s argument is ultimately not that Middlesbrough is without hope. It is almost the opposite. It is that the talent, resilience and potential already here deserve the same investment and opportunity afforded elsewhere.

The town that helped build bridges, railways, ships and skylines around the world is still capable of building something new.

That will require consequences for those who cause harm, but also opportunity for those at risk of being pulled towards it. It means giving young people somewhere to go, something to work towards and a genuine reason to believe their future can be bigger than their postcode.

And amid an incredibly difficult period for Middlesbrough, perhaps that is the part worth holding onto.

There are thousands of people here who care deeply about this place and are already doing the work.

McGovern finished with a reminder of the town that made her:

“Middlesbrough made me like the steel used all over the world.”

And then, perhaps, the most important line of all:

“Let’s get back to building each other up not tearing each other down.”

Middlesbrough has rebuilt before.

There is plenty here worth building on.

Sources and context: Steph McGovern statement supplied to The Tees; Cleveland Police updates on serious and organised crime investigations; English Indices of Deprivation 2025; Middlesbrough Council deprivation data; contemporary reporting by Reuters, ITV Tyne Tees and The Guardian.