10-05-2025
We want growth. So why lumber small firms with this unfair tax?
The Port of Middlesbrough on the River Tees is a busy old place, handling steel shipments, minerals and cables for windfarms in the North Sea. In summary, it's a pretty useful hub for many of the UK's key industrial ambitions. The port's owner is AV Dawson Ltd, a family business since Arthur Vernon Dawson bought a horse and cart in 1938 and decided to sell coal on the streets of Middlesbrough.
Ports are cash-hungry places. AV Dawson (the firm, not the man) wants to spend £25 million updating the quayside and dredging the river. But there's a catch. Since the budget, that £25 million investment is under review because the firm's owner, the grandson of the founder, is facing the prospect of a massive inheritance
