A Darlington engineering group has collapsed into administration in yet another blow to the steel industry.
Around 220 jobs are at risk at Cleveland Bridge, which helped build the Shard skyscraper in London, the Wembley Stadium arch and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
It is understood the engineer’s finances were hammered when a major bridge-building project in Sri Lanka was put on hold because of Covid.
Around 220 jobs are at risk at Cleveland Bridge, which helped build the Shard skyscraper in London (pictured), the Wembley Stadium arch and the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Cleveland Bridge, founded in 1877, was in talks with its owner, Saudi Arabian Al-Rushaid Group, to secure an extra £6million of funds but this was unsuccessful.
UK steel firm Cleveland Bridge collapses into administration
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Among those in the wrong hands are the world s largest security company G4S, employing 533,000 people across the globe, and infrastructure champion John Laing, which managed the construction of the second Severn crossing, the Prince of Wales Bridge.
Most buyers are more interested in short-term returns, rather than Building Back Better or levelling up – the favourite mantras of the Government. There has also been private equity interest in the UK s depleted aerospace and engineering sector at engineer Senior and Ultra Electronics.
If you want to understand why there is so little consistency in the way Whitehall handles bids for British industrial and manufacturing gems, look no further than the grandiloquently named but universally deprecated Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Former Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism Fergus Ewing was the key contact for steel billionaire Gupta, holding regular meetings, including an un-minuted, private dinner with the controversial banker at the heart of the Conservative lobbying scandal, Lex Greensill, and Gupta back in 2017. Ministers engagements for 2020 list three phone meetings with Gupta and Ewing not on the lobbying register. A GFG Alliance spokesperson said: “GFG is a significant employer and investor in the UK and as part of its normal course of doing business we engage with a range of stakeholders, including politicians, on a number of topics that relate to our businesses. We have strong links with the Scottish and Welsh governments because of the plants and jobs in Scotland and Wales.”