TEESSIDE SPECIAL: LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE
Soft option
EVIDENCE obtained by the
Eye
raises serious doubts about the official justification for the deal which gifted local businessmen hundreds of millions of pounds out of the publicly funded regeneration of the former Teesside steelworks site under regional mayor Lord (Ben) Houchen.
That official version of events – revolving around a minor land interest on a neighbouring site that supposedly gave the men huge leverage – was presented to the board of the public body responsible for the project, as well as to a government review last year and to the public.
Back in 2019, Houchen’s South Tees Development Corporation was pursuing a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for 870 acres of land on the south bank of the Tees. It was owned by Thai steel company Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), the UK arm of which had gone into liquidation in 2015, ending steel-making on Teesside. STDC had already bought 1,400 acres on the site but needed SSI’s land to bring the area under a single regeneration plan.
SSI, however, objected to the compulsory purchase, as did the Thai banks with charges over its assets. They cited alternative opportunities but, realistically, given that CPOs are rarely refused and the Teesside plans had Whitehall backing, they were looking to get the best price for the land.
SSI also effectively controlled a company called Redcar Bulk Terminal Ltd, which owned around 325 acres of land next door to the SSI land, incorporating the bulk shipping port. RBT had been losing money since the closure of the steelworks that had provided much of its business, but new plans for Teesside made the port a valuable proposition – albeit this was only a small proportion of RBT’s land.