Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many people receive the Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage in the Tees Valley region; what estimate the Department has made of the additional wage income received by workers in the Tees Valley as a result of increases to those rates in 2025/26; and what estimate it has made for 2026/27.

Estimates by local authority and parliamentary constituency are not always available due to data reliability constraints.

Around 140,000 workers in the North East were expected to benefit from a direct pay rise following National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) increases in April 2025; and around 130,000 workers following the increases in April 2026. The 2026 NLW uplift is worth around £900 annually for a full-time worker, and over £1,500 for 18–20-year-olds on the NMW.

Further details can be found in the The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2026.