Don't take anything I print as fact, because I am not part of the consortium at Halifax, nor the Administrator.
My understanding is that it is the club i.e the company that are broke - not the people who head up the consortium. These guys want to take over the club and start afresh and part of the plan was to 'clear' the debt. As much as I think that it is disgraceful that people can 'clear' debts by only paying a fraction of that debt, it is a legal means under the insolvency act.
In their case they have put a lot of money into the club to keep it running since their arrival. Clearing the debt would give them the platform to 'move the club on' under their control. However this plan has badly backfired on them - with HM Revenue refusing to accept the paltry 2.5% repayment figure they had in mind.
Knowing what they have spent to date is a large sum of money, then spending a few more thousand on legal fees and train fares to London etc to try and stay in the Conf or Conf N was probably a good gamble in their eyes. It will be interesting to see what their next move is. I hope the team can get into the NCE before it's too late.