Cleveland Police has confirmed that there have been no investigations into Teesworks.

Last month, Labour Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald alleged “industrial-scale corruption” at the freeport. In response, a Teesworks spokesperson urged him to report it to the police if he believed criminal offences had occurred.

A spokesperson for the force has now confirmed it had not received any complaints and no investigations have taken place, or are ongoing, into Teesworks, the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen or developers Martin Corney and Chris Musgrave.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service also asked the Serious Fraud Office whether an investigation was ongoing but as per its standard practice, it would neither confirm nor deny.

Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison also responded to Mr McDonald on behalf of the government this week after he requested a meeting to discuss his concerns. She said that they’d seen “no evidence of corruption, wrongdoing, or illegality”.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke claimed Mr McDonald had led a “shameful attempt” to “smear” the freeport scheme. Mr McDonald said the Tories were being “totally ridiculous” blaming Labour and they had to accept there are “very serious and legitimate concerns”.

Ms Davison, Mr Clarke and Mr Houchen have all received donations in 2019 (that were declared at the time) from Ian Waller, a director at Northern Land Management Ltd, which has a 25 per cent share in Teesworks Ltd.

This week, Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy wrote to National Audit Office chief Gareth Davies to demand a full investigation into Teesworks. Later the same day, Mr Houchen wrote to Mr Davies and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to also call for a review.

Ms Nandy has since sent another letter to Mr Gove after concerns that an investigation was out of the NAO’s remit as it claimed it could not examine the decisions or actions of the TVCA or STDC. The Labour politician asked whether Mr Gove could look into whether the legislation allows for the NAO to conduct a probe, without any limits, providing that he consents and if he has the power to treat this as an exceptional case and launch a government investigation.

On Wednesday night, Mr Houchen would not directly answer BBC Newsnight’s question about how much had been spent by private developers on the freeport. Mr Musgrave and Mr Corney’s companies own 90 per cent of shares in Teesworks.

Mr Houchen said they were currently liable for a £107m loan and remediation works worth £20m to £50m for the Net Zero Teesside Power site. This is a joint venture between BP and Equinor and is aiming to be the UK’s first fully integrated commercial-scale gas-fired power station with carbon capture.

Mr Houchen added that it was a “simplistic view to take” when asked if it was correct that the developers had not invested anything yet. It’s thought the developers have received around £45m in dividends so far from the project.

Concerns were raised about Teesworks after a share transfer saw companies owned by Mr Corney and Mr Musgrave – JC Musgrave Capital, Northern Land Management Ltd, and DCS Industrial Limited – increase their Teesworks Ltd shares from 50% to 90%, leaving the STDC with 10 per cent, rather than the 50 per cent it had held before.

At the time, Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham said the area was seeing “dodgy deals” but Mr Houchen said the deal removed the liabilities for the site from the taxpayer and allowed the freeport to secure hundreds of millions of pounds of private cash.

A valuation seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service puts the cost of remediating the site, excluding the 90-acre SeAH plot, at £482.6m and a nominal value of £1 was placed on the entire site.

Originally, the aim was to develop 20,000 jobs over 25 years at Teesworks, with public money used to remediate some parts of the site and then cash from investors would be reinvested to remediate the next plot.

However, Mr Houchen has previously said the remediation work needed to be speeded up so investors could take advantage of time-limited freeport tax breaks, which will be reviewed in 2026. This is the argument behind moving to a 90/10 shares split, so private investment could be brought in quicker.

Currently, Teesworks Ltd is entitled to buy land at the site for £1 an acre. The STDC borrows money to remediate plots and then Teesworks Ltd pays it back with interest. If it does not pay back the STDC, it will not be able to acquire the land.

Teesworks Ltd is also eligible for half of the income of the scrap from the site. The most recent figure suggests the scrap amount has totalled £93m.

Mr Corney and Mr Musgrave did not take part in a public tender process to acquire shares in Teesworks in the first place (or when the shares were increased to 90 per cent) However, Mr Houchen has said without the developers the scheme would not have happened.

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After Redcar Steelworks went into liquidation, the STDC tried to buy the site. However, it had to negotiate with Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) and three Thai banks, as the banks were owed around £800m because they held the former steelworks site.

When it became clear that negotiations, which included delegations flying back and forth between the UK and Thailand, were not going to result in a deal the STDC applied for a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to take over the site. However, Mr Houchen said it was clear they were going to lose which is when Mr Musgrave and Mr Corney swept in at the eleventh hour to offer a deal, according to the mayor.

This came after their company DCS Industrial Limited signed a three-year lease for a 70-acre site on the Redcar Bulk Terminal (RBT). The SSI agreed to stop trying to block the CPO, in return for the RBT site. For brokering this deal, Mr Corney and Mr Musgrave were brought in as development partners on the Teesworks scheme.