Currently reading: MG workers in line for £22m
Payout could be possible, after £22m found on MG Rover's books

Collapsed car maker MG Rover has £22 million left on its books that could be used to compensate thousands of car workers who lost their jobs, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The report says that cash has remained with a car leasing business, called MGR Capital, that is linked to the now defunct Rover firm.

MGR Capital was reportedly co-owned by Halifax Bank of Scotland - part of the state-controlled Lloyds Banking Group - and some of the original Rover directors.

The firm is said to have been wound up last August with £22 million on its books thanks in part to a VAT refund in 2005.

HBOS is understood to have taken control of all of the cash and now the Government is reportedly facing calls to hand it out to some of the 6000 former Rover staff who were left out of work when the Birmingham-based car maker collapsed in April 2005.

MPs with constituencies close to the former Longbridge car plant are asking Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, to look at whether the Government's position in Lloyds could help it seize the cash.

MGR Capital lent money to customers wanting to buy MG and Rover cars.

It was one of those firms investigated by the then Department for Trade and Industry.

The long-awaited report into the collapse of MG Rover will be published on 11 September.

Twitter - follow autocar.co.ukSee all the latest MG reviews, news and video

Join the debate

Comments
1
Add a comment…
Symanski 1 September 2009

Re: MG workers in line for £22m

Workers have been compensated already. Businesses who supplied parts to MG will have lost money, and the UK Government also lent money to MG. That's where it should be distributed to.

Although, £ 22 million sounds like a lot it's less than £ 4,000 per worker.