Last week saw an end to the long and sad saga of the MG Rover trust fund.
It is now more than seven and a half years since the Phoenix Four made their promise to set up a trust fund for former MG Rover workers, when the company closed in 2005.
After seven and a half years of waiting, the money – initially anticipated to be in the millions – has never appeared.
The Birmingham Post has reported today that the MG Rover Trust Fund is to be wound up after over seven years – without a penny going to the 6,500 former workers who lost their jobs in 2005. The trustees seem to have given up hope of the Phoenix Four ever putting the funds in to the trust which they led employees to believe they would. If reports are true, the trustees’ decision may be realistic …
It is now more than seven years since the Phoenix Four made their promise to set up a trust fund for former MG Rover workers, when the company closed in 2005.
After seven years of waiting, former workers are now being told they will receive just £3 each. That is nothing more than an insult to the people who did everything that was asked of them by the Phoenix Four and ended up losing everything.
It is now more than seven years since the Phoenix Four made their promise to set up a trust fund for former MG Rover workers, when the company closed in 2005.
You may have seen the report in today’s Birmingham Mail about a High Court ruling against Phoenix Venture Holdings’ application for HBOS to disclose financial information relating to the disposal of 8,000 cars.
Pleased to have the chance to talk to racing driver Jason Plato at the launch of the MG KX Momentum BTCC Racing Team at the MG factory in Longbridge.
You may have seen the news last week that the Phoenix Four, the former bosses of MG Rover, have been disqualified as company directors.
The independent inquiry into the collapse of MG Rover, which reported its findings in 2009, was damning for the Phoenix Four. The picture that emerged was of millions being made not from the engineering of cars but from the engineering of company finances.
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.