Government ploughs £4.5 million into Sefton Group

The Manx government is to plough £4.5 million into the struggling Sefton Group.

It’s to loan the organisation £1.3 million, repayable after five years, to help reduce its debt.

And it’s also buying the Middlemarch site in Lower Douglas for £3.2 million, which will be immediately leased back to the group as it tries to restructure.

The Sefton Group employs 300 people in the Island’s tourism, leisure and construction sectors and Chief Minister Allan Bell says, while he expects government to be criticised over the deal, he insists the alternative was unpalatable.