Rover’s future remains in doubt

NEGOTIATIONS to revive a rescue package for MG Rover are continuing as administrators continue to scrutinise the stricken company’s books.

It has emerged that the British government could investigate the lucrative top executive pay and pension packages at the ailing cargiant.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said there would “obviously” be inquiries into what had happened at the company since it was bought from BMW for a symbolic £10 in 2000.

He also disclosed that the Government was prepared to put more money into a £40 million package of support already announced to help supply firms hit by the Rover crisis.

Administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will continue to study the books of MG Rover after spending yesterday in meetings with officials and advisors from the Department of Trade and Industry as well as union leaders.

Joint administrator Ian Powell said he was seeking to reopen discussions with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in a bid to revive the deal which dramatically collapsed last week, threatening the jobs of 6,000 workers in Longbridge, Birmingham, and of thousands of other workers at supplier firms.

Mr Powell said there were grounds for optimism about the future of MG Rover even though several keyassets such as the intellectual property rights to some Rover models had already been sold.

He also said that the directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings, the parent of MG Rover, had told him that “they are considering the solvency of Phoenix at the moment”.

Workers have been told to report for duty to Longbridge today even though car production was at a standstill after firms stopped supplying components.

Mr Brown was on the election trail in Edinburgh yesterday when he was asked if it was right that top Rover directors had benefited by millions of pounds.

He replied that while the possibility of saving jobs remained, it was time for everybody to pull together.

But he added: “There will obviously be inquiries into what has happened in Rover since the deal with BMW.

“But at the moment we have to look at what we can do to help the existing jobs, the existing manufacturing work and existing skills.”