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Steel giant's £7m loan goes unpaid

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date05 December 2022
Publication titleExpress, The/The Express on Sunday
Questions have been raised over the £7million loan to Liberty Steel by SNP ministers in 2017, and whether Scottish taxpayers will ever see their money again

Fresh calls for answers come as it emerged today that not a penny of the loan, given to help with the running of Dalzell Steelworks in Motherwell, has been repaid.

The sum was first noted as being owed by Liberty Steel Dalzell in Scottish Enterprise's accounts for 2016-17.

The future of the Dalzell steel works in Motherwell, and its sister Clydebridge plant in Cambuslang, looked bleak when Tata Steel in effect mothballed them in 2015. But Liberty Steel, owned by Mr Gupta, emerged to save it.

In a deal, the Scottish Government bought the sites from Tata and sold them to Liberty in spring 2016.

The following year, the Scottish Government confirmed "a three-year repayable commercial loan" had been issued to support the cost of restarting the Dalzell plate mill.The loan was issued by the Scottish Enterprise quango.

The exact terms remained confidential, but were said to be within the rules for public sector loans.

In response to a written Holyrood question by the Lib Dems, Enterprise Minister Ivan McKee said: "Repayments of the loan have not been made on time, however debt forbearance is not uncommon in the current market and the company is meeting the current interest payments. The current capital balance owed on the loan is £7million and Scottish Enterprise remains in negotiation with the company over repayment."

Jamie Halcro Johnston, Scottish Conservative Shadow Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, said: "Yet again, the SNP Government is responding to questions about their reckless handing of public money with secrecy and evasion.

"When millions of pounds are lent by a national body and not repaid, the taxpayer deserves an explanation. But, like so much around the SNP's handling of Liberty Steel business, they are hiding behind excuses rather than coming clean.

"It's time we got to the bottom of this murky business."

Scottish ministers are already under fire for a deal with Mr Gupta's company to buy the Lochaber Smelter.

In 2016 the Scottish Government...

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