More than £650m of state support has been poured into the Teesworks regeneration project, despite a deal handing the land to the private sector.
The sum extended to the UK’s biggest brownfield site includes a sharp rise in local taxpayer liabilities and national tax breaks in the past three years.
The six-year-old project has been plagued by questions over a decision taken by a public sector body chaired by Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen in 2021 to hand 90% of the shares in Teesworks Ltd to local businessmen for free.
The purpose of the share transfer was to reduce the burden on taxpayers to fund the site’s regeneration.
Despite Houchen’s claim that the developers, controlled by Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, had invested £168m in the site, an FT investigation could only find evidence of a single £15m investment.
