An inquiry has found no evidence of “corruption or illegality” at the Teesworks site in the North East of England – but has raised concerns over “transparency and oversight.
The development of the former Redcar Steelworks began in 2015 and has seen the area transformed into a large industrial site, with plans to turn it into a freeport to create a tax-free zone for shipping.
Tees Valley Conservative mayor Lord Ben Houchen claimed it had raised £2bn of private sector investment and created almost 3,000 jobs.
But the government ordered an independent inquiry into the site after claims private companies – which now own the 90% of the project – had profited to the detriment of the taxpayer.
Releasing its report on Monday, the inquiry said it had found “no evidence to support allegations of corruption or illegality”.
However, its report added: “There are issues of governance and transparency that need to be addressed and a number of decisions taken by the bodies involved do not meet the standards expected when managing public funds.”
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The site has been pointed to as a “levelling up” success for the government, and made Lord Houchen a well-known figure within the Tories.
But a report by the Financial Times claimed Teesworks Ltd – a company set up by the South Tees Development Corporation, which is chaired by the mayor, to run the project – had handed over 90% of its shares to local business people for free and without a tender process, despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer cash being pumped into the project.
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Image: Rishi Sunak with Tees Valley mayor Lord Ben Houchen and supporters during a visit to Teesworks. Pic: PA.
Labour claimed there has been “a worrying lack of effective safeguards to ensure value for money for taxpayers” throughout the project, and attacked Lord Houchen for the part he had played.
And Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald made allegations in the Commons of “truly shocking, industrial-scale corruption”.
But the Tory mayor accused the party of “smearing [an] incredible project” that has been “delivered by the Conservative Party in a traditional Labour heartland”.
While the inquiry rejected Mr McDonald’s allegations, they did conclude “the systems of governance and finance in place within TVCA [the Tees Valley Combined Authority] and STDC [the South Tees Development Corporation] at present do not include the expected sufficiency of transparency and oversight across the system to evidence value for money”.
Responding to the report, Lord Houchen said it “sets out in black and white that there is no corruption or illegality at Teesworks”.
He added: “Without this partnership, the former steelworks would still be sat idle, costing the taxpayer £20m a year to stand still, with no investment and not a single job in sight.”
The mayor also said he would “review the recommendations to improve our processes and procedures in line with the report’s findings”.
But Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the report gave “a scathing assessment of Conservative mayor Ben Houchen’s mismanagement and bad governance at Teesworks”, and “many questions remain”.
She called on the government to refer the project to the National Audit Office (NAO).
A spokesperson for the NAO said: “We will examine the detail of the government’s review to understand whether there are implications for central government and therefore the NAO’s future work programme.”
Apple says devices sold in the US will no longer come from China, as the tech giant tries to mitigate the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Most iPhones will be sourced from India instead, with iPads coming from Vietnam, to prevent dramatic price rises for American consumers.
Unveiling financial results from January to March, the company said the US president’s escalating trade war has had a limited impact on its performance so far.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook believes the tariffs will add £677m in costs during the current quarter – assuming Trump’s policies don’t change.
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Revenue for the first three months of the year stood at £71.8bn, with earnings of £18.6bn also beating analyst expectations.
High demand for iPhones during this period may have been driven by US shoppers rushing to make purchases before the new tariffs came into force.
But the full impact of any panic buying will only emerge when Apple reports its results from April to June later in the year.
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Apple’s reliance on Chinese factories to manufacture its iPhones meant the company was far more exposed to the impact of Trump’s trade war than others.
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After the president unveiled plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries – now largely paused for 90 days – Apple’s stock plunged by 23%, wiping out £582bn of value.
While its share price has recovered slightly, it remains 5% lower than before “Liberation Day”.
Growing tensions between Washington and Beijing are also having an impact on Apple’s sales in China, which fell 2.3% between January and March.
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Addressing the planned changes to manufacturing, Mr Cook added: “We have a complex supply chain. There’s always risk in the supply chain. What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it.”
Devices sold outside of the US will continue to be made in China.
The owner of Space NK has kicked off a formal sale process more than a year since it hired bankers to auction the high street beauty chain.
Sky News has learnt that teasers have begun being circulated to prospective bidders in recent weeks, despite anxiety about consumer confidence in a stuttering UK economy.
Manzanita Capital, a private investment firm, engaged bankers at Raymond James to oversee an auction in April 2024.
But it added that the current status of the succession planning for the electric car-maker was not known.
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Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denholm, later reacted to the report by insisting that any suggestion of an active search was “absolutely false”.
She added that the board was highly confident in Musk’s ability to continue “executing on the exciting growth plan ahead”.
Musk’s net worth has plunged and Tesla stocks have fallen sharply amid a public backlash over his role in Donald Trump’s government. He owns just under 13% of Tesla stock and is the largest shareholder.
The world’s richest man has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has overseen the firing of tens of thousands of government employees.
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He has also supported far-right parties in Europe, which has led to protests against Musk and Tesla, which have seen its showrooms and charging stations vandalised across the US and Europe.
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It comes after Musk said the time he spends with DOGE would “drop significantly” from May and he will dedicate more time to running his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and X.
The board members met with Musk and asked him to announce publicly he would spend more time at Tesla, the report said.
It was unclear if Musk, who is a member of the board, was aware of any attempts to identify a successor, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla had affected succession planning, it added.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump said Musk could be part of his administration for as long as he wants.
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“You’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Mr Trump said.
He said Musk had been “treated unfairly” for his role in helping Mr Trump slash the size of the federal government, adding: “You really have sacrificed a lot.”