SLEEPLESS nights and weeks of negotiations have finally hammered out a deal to bring the former Redcar steelworks into public hands.

The agreement for all the former SSI assets and land was unveiled at 10am yesterday in South Bank in compulsory purchase hearings.

It’s understood the deal struck was for just £1 after years of wrangling and more than a week of waiting for three Thai banks and SSI to agree to the final terms.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen admitted on Wednesday afternoon he thought the deal could be dead.

But he cut a relieved picture on the back of the agreement being given the green light.

The Conservative Mayor said: “The deal is that finally we get ownership of the land we have been trying to get hold of for some time now – and we can get on and deliver the jobs and investment this area needs and deserves.

“It’s been tremendously difficult – one of the most difficult things I’ve ever dealt with in my life.

“It almost broke me yesterday when things were hanging in the balance. It was really, really difficult.

“There is a huge amount of thanks that need to go to the development corporation board.

“My officials sat until 1am with solicitors, banks and SSI.

“There is a huge team behind this who have made this happen, right the way through to Steve Gibson, who has been a huge rock and support to me in giving me advice in helping to get this deal over the line

“When Teesside pulls together we can get this over the line – and now it means we go again to deliver the jobs and investment this site needs and deserves and we can get on and deliver for local people.”

Plenty of work to do

The deal is a step forward for the STDC and its vision to create 20,000 jobs on the vast site in the next 25 years by attracting big investors.

The low £1 sum for the land is likely down to the high cost of looking after the deteriorating and dangerous assets on land – with more than 5,000 tonnes of dangerous material to be cleaned up and managed.

It’s costing the South Tees Site Company £16m a year just to keep the site safe.

A pair of ammonia washers at the former coke ovens – where two men were killed last year – are at risk of imminent collapse, according to the STDC.

Eye-watering demolition costs on the site have been unveiled through evidence at the inquiry in South Bank.

A £14m price-tag has been estimated to demolish the former Redcar blast furnace – with £10m to extract asbestos from Redcar power station and about £20m needed to demolish and decontaminate the Redcar coke ovens.

More than 3,000 jobs were lost when SSI collapsed in 2015.

Delegations have travelled from the UK to Thailand many times in the past three years to try and strike a deal the former SSI assets.

Mr Houchen said the STDC now owned “pretty much all” of the development corporation site – except for British Steel and PD Ports.

He added: “This now gets us onto the phase people actually care about. Now we’ve put the building blocks in place, it’s about jobs and investment.

“We can genuinely get on site in the coming weeks – we could see men on site and bulldozers preparing the land and jobs being created in the construction phase.

“This is the thing that unlocks the potential. It’s why it’s taken so long to do because it’s so important to get the foundations and building blocks in place.

“We can now stick this thing into overdrive.”

What of the future?

A total of £221m has been granted for the vast site from the government – not including the £71m announced earlier this year.

With the land all but secured, efforts now turn to the carbon capture and storage facility on the Redcar side of the 2,300 acre site.

And Mr Houchen said the STDC wanted to focus on attracting manufacturers of large off-shore wind infrastructure on Teesside.

The mayor added: “There is huge potential with off-shore wind manufacturers.

“We needed to give clarity on land ownership to them – and this now allows us to take that issue off the table.

“The first thing we will be doing is getting the Net Zero Teesside/OGCI deal over the line –

“Hopefully in the coming days I can now sit down with them – and we might be in a position in the not too distant future to make an official announcement that this is underway.

“This is now happening and we can get on and deliver what is genuinely a world first opportunity on Teesside.”

Hearings go on

Despite the breakthrough, some administrative mopping up is still needed at the compulsory purchase hearings at South Tees Business Centre.

Tarmac and Sembcorp among the objectors to the buy out of remaining parcels of land on the vast 2,300 acre site.

And one objection from one of the Thai banks will remain in writing for the time being.

But planning inspector Phillip Ware said it was “very likely” the outstanding objection would be withdrawn in the coming weeks.

Richard Glover QC, on behalf of the Thai Banks and SSI, opened the hearings saying he was the “bearer of good news”.

He added: “There have been productive discussions which have led to a settlement agreement.

“For essentially administrative reasons, it’s not possible to formally withdraw the bank’s objection today. But on the other hand it would serve no useful purpose for us to make any legal submissions and cross examination of STDC witnesses.”

Mr Glover said the banks proposed not to call any witnesses and to treat their evidence as written.

He added: “The expectation is the evidence and the objections will be formally withdrawn in the near future.”