Full payment of controversial Teesworks plot not due until December 2025

Land registration documents show the 90-acre site, where a factory for offshore wind turbine monopiles is currently being built by SeAH Wind, was sold at the end of last year to property developers for £96.79. However, STDC have since claimed a side-deal will net the public body £15m for the disposal of the land.

Details of the transaction came to light earlier this year, after Teesworks Ltd - which is 90 per cent owned by property developers led by Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney - took an option to buy the land for £1 an acre plus VAT.

The deal became the focus of intense criticism, with Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald accusing those involved of “industrial-scale corruption” in the House of Commons.

In May a spokesperson for STDC told The Yorkshire Post the overall value of the deal appeared as a fixed asset on the accounts of its subsidiary company, South Tees Developments Limited. After completion of the deal it would be visible as receivable on the next set of accounts, which are due to be submitted to Companies House at the end of this year.

The publicly-owned development corporation has since shown £5m of the transaction had been paid to them on March 31, and has claimed the £10m balance was due on the following year’s accounts.

However, an FOI request by The Yorkshire Post has revealed the £10m balance isn’t due to be paid until December 2025 - three years after the land was bought by the property developers.

Freeholders Teesworks Ltd acquired the site in the apparent £15m deal and sold a forty-year lease to Australian financial giant Macquarie for a cash sum believed to be £75m. Macquarie subsequently lease the land to Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) for £3.65m a year, who then sub-let to land-users SeAH Wind for £4.3m.

Macquarie only completed the paperwork on their lease on June 23, leaving TVCA liable for rent to Teesworks Ltd before that date. They made two payments totalling £1,953,618.01 on April 1 this year to Teesworks Ltd for rent on the parcel of land.

However, a separate FOI request by The Yorkshire Post has revealed Teesworks Ltd gave TVCA £13.4m on March 31 in order to cover their rent to Macquarie during the period the combined authority is unable to earn rent income themselves. The £1.9m paid by the authority came from this pot.

The Lord Houchen-led authority will not receive income from SeAH until the construction of their factory is completed. Last month a spokesperson for TVCA said this was expected “within two years”.

A spokesperson for STDC said the December 2025 date was a “hard stop due date”, and the £10m balance was expected to be paid this year as it has been earmarked to cover expenditure.