The government plans to raise its aid offer to BMW for Rover’s Longbridge plant from £118m to at least £150m, according to a report in The Sunday Times at the weekend.
But The Observer wrote that the treasury had declined to top up the department of trade and industry’s (DTI) offer of a £118m grant.
BMW is expected to announce it will spend about £1.7bn to rebuild the Birmingham factory, according to a feature in the Financial Times which profiles BMW chairman Joachim Milberg. A columnist in the Financial Times asks whether it makes any sense to spend British taxpayer’s money to bring the plant back from the dead. An article in The Guardian claims the game of brinkmanship between the government and BMW could endanger the plant.
Financial Times 22/03/99 page 11, page 16
The Daily Telegraph 22/03/99 page 29 (The City Checklist)
The Independent 22/03/99 page 14 (What The Papers Said)
The Guardian 22/03/99 page 9
