More than £5m public cash invested in Rotherham is lost

MORE than £5m of public money, intended to support a high-tech battery production company in Rotherham, has been lost.

A report states a number of “key lessons learned” had since been identified - but stressed the “difficulties experienced…could not have been foreseen.”

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority has reported that it will be unable to recover the £5.2m invested in the Ultimate Battery Company, which had premises on the Thurcroft Industrial Estate, because it - along with an unrelated firm which also had financial support in Doncaster - had ceased trading.

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The development is not only a blow to the SYMCA, which is seeking to develop the county’s economy, but also to the workforce, who had been told to expect almost 500 new jobs at the plant.

Vacant: The Ultimate Battery Company premisesplaceholder image
Vacant: The Ultimate Battery Company premises

Official records show UBC moved its registered office to the industrial estate, at New Orchard Lane, from Manchester, but has since switched back.

The company has not been contactable for comment.

An audit report for the mayoral authority confirmed that a loan of £3.2m to UBC had been written off, along with £2m in Gainshare funding, money which comes from £30m a year provided by the Government for the authority to spend in South Yorkshire.

Details of the situation are contained in an annual audit report for SYMCA’s activities.

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Unrecovered: Public money paid to Ultimate Battery Company has been written-offplaceholder image
Unrecovered: Public money paid to Ultimate Battery Company has been written-off

It states: “Due to issues encountered by these projects, both companies have since ceased trading without repayment of the loans to the authority.”

As a result, an independent review was conducted and, the report states that: “Resulted in a number of key lessons learned being identified and an action plan is currently underway.”

It also clarified: “We note that the external consultant did note that the business case process followed for these investments was deemed to be fit for purpose and the issues and difficulties experienced by these companies could not have been foreseen.

“We have therefore not identified a significant weakness in governance arrangements in relation to the circumstances of these loan write-offs.”

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UBC’s decision to expand into Rotherham was announced in 2022 and was said to have been influenced by the SYMCA’s commitment to net zero manufacturing and because the firm had strong links to the advanced manufacturing and research centre, which straddles Rotherham and Sheffield.

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