UT-2024-000123 - [2025] UKUT 00360 (TCC)

It is submitted that, the FTT having found that the Company’s cost of borrowing was BoE base rate plus 2.27% and that the sums overpaid “were not available to the Appellant in the running of its business and therefore either directly or indirectly the borrowing requirements of the Appellant were increased as a consequence of the overpayments”, the FTT erred in concluding that the Company “is entitled to interest at base plus 1.5%”.

Mr Beal submitted that the correct approach in determining whether to award additional interest is set out in Emblaze. The FTT erred in concluding that anything less than reimbursement of the actual costs of borrowing provided an adequate indemnity as a matter of EU law. There was no particular reason to justify a lower figure.

Furthermore, the FTT erred in having regard to the Settlement Agreement in reaching its Decision. The FTT accepted the evidence of Mr MacMillan on behalf of the Company and to reduce the interest payable below the Company’s true cost of borrowing without any challenge to that evidence is unfair.