MP quizzes bank over Weldon Plant
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chris.tindaltrarbi.co.uk CORBY, NORTHANTS MP Louise Bagshawe has written to Weldon Plant's bank demanding to know why it did not warn the construction haulier it was reducing its overdraft by a third.
The construction haulier's chairman says its only option is administration after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) apparently made substantial cuts to its facilities without notice (CM 9 September). However, as CM went to press an administrator had not yet been appointed, leaving the company's 140 staff in limbo.
Conservative MP Bagshawe describes the knock-on effects of any administration to subcontractors and the local economy as "worrying". She says: "I wrote to both the chief executive and regional boss of RBS on behalf of Weldon on 24 August, and asked them a number of questions. Why isn't a bank which is majority-owned by the taxpayer lending to small businesses like it promised? Why wasn't this company given reasonable forewarning about the reduction of their overdraft'?
"I also reminded RBS that the UK economy is slowly recovering from two years of ruin and, with this considered, why on earth are banks rushing through closures of chiefly successful businesses such as Weldon?"
A spokesman al Bagshawe's Westminster office says the overdraft was due to be reduced on 31 August but RBS cut it one month early.
He adds: "The worry is they apparently had full order books. We are getting a lot of ernails from subcontractors and staff at Weldon who are probably going to be looking for new jobs."
An RBS spokesman says it has responded to the points raised in Bagshawe's letter, but did not know if she had received it. "For that reason, and for customer confidentiality, I'm afraid I can't go into details about the content."