Council questions £100m UK grant for Belgian factory after Welsh site scrapped

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Why was £100 million given by the UK Government to finance building a glass-making factory in Belgium, and did this contribute to the decision to pull the plug on factory plans in south Wales, a council has asked.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Economic Development and Environmental Management scrutiny committee on Tuesday, November 11, questions around the £100 million UK Government grant were brought up as councillors discussed the county's “Blueprint for Growth”.

Ciner Glass were given planning permission by councillors to build the factory, that was hoped would create 650 jobs, at a site on the Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale back in June 2022.

Cllr Gareth Alban Davies (Opposition Independent – Rassau and Garnlydan) asked: “What has this council done to find out about the £100 million loan that has been made by Westminster to Ciner to help them build their factory in Belgium?

“Did that influence their decision not to build one in Rassau?

“I think it’s a disgusting decision to make. 600 jobs coming into this area would have been fantastic.”

“The people of Blaenau Gwent and us as councillors deserve to know what exactly has gone on with that.”

Acting joint Director of Economy for both Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen, Christina Harrhy said: “Obviously there are commercial sensitivities around that transaction that I need to respect, in any such investment opportunity there are several parties that come around the table to make it happen.”

These would be Ciner, Blaenau Gwent council and both Welsh and UK Governments.

Ms Harrhy said: “Every partner that was around that table did everything they possibly could to make that happen and bring those jobs into the county borough.

“We are part of a global network and these companies operate in a global environment.

“Ultimately what happened is that the business proposition did not stack up financially and economically any longer, that’s why it failed.”

Reality 

She added that this is “not unusual” and for every 10 conversations that council, and government officials have with businesses, nine: “don’t go anywhere.”

Ms Harrhy continued: “That’s the reality of operating in business.”

She assured councillors that this was only one conversation and that “many others” are going on to bring business into Blaenau Gwent.

Cllr Davies understood commerical confidentiality and stressed that details of the grant had already been made public – but had not been picked up on in Wales.

He said: “We’ve had so many false dawns about things that were coming, the people of Blaenau Gwent have been let down too many times.”

Last month the grant of £100.5 million by the UK Export Finance department, the UK Government’s export credit agency, to Ciner was revealed.

Progress

Documents on the UK Export Finance website explain that the key aim of the project they are investing in is to: “Produce container glass (bottles) for the Belgian, Dutch and German markets, as well as for possible neighbouring countries.”

Tecoglas Limited in Sheffield are listed in the documents as a UK exporter involved in this project, a firm which provides furnaces used in the production of glass.

In July, Ciner announced their decision to shelve their plans to build the factory at the Rassau Industrial Estate.

In February 2024, planning officers approved amendments to the planning permission for the factory which would have made it smaller than the original scheme.

During the last couple of years concerns were raised regularly by councillors over the lack of progress being seen with the scheme.

In August, Ciner announced the signing of a €504 million (Euro) financing agreement to support the development of its state-of-the-art container glass production facility in Lommel, Belgium.

UK Export Finance were included in the list of organisations that had contributed to the finance package.