Redcar steel jobs hope extinguished as ovens and furnace are shut down

Hopes that steelmaking could return to Teesside’s SSI plant have been dashed after it was announced the coke ovens and blast furnace are to close.

“I can not continue to draw on taxpayers funds to keep the ovens operational when there is no realistic prospect that a buyer will be found. I am continuing my liquidation of the company, including talking with interested parties about purchasing the company’s other assets”.

Labour’s Anna Turley said ministers should have stepped in to stop the “hard closure” from going ahead.

Amanda Skelton, the chair of the SSI Task Force and chief executive of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, issued a statement promising that there will be support for those who are losing their jobs.

Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said it was a dark day for the area and accused the government of “abandoning Teesside”. “The Government have abandoned Teesside”.

Unite national officer Harish Patel said: “The hope of a buyer stepping in has been cruelly extinguished by the liquidator’s haste and the government’s refusal to step in and buy more coal to keep the coke ovens alight”. This news is very, very disappointing and my thoughts are with the workers and their families.

“I want to be in position where we can help everybody, not just the 2,100 (sic) people unfortunately affected by this announcement”, she said.

The money will provide training for the workers, and also enable other local businesses to grow and create jobs.

Ms Turley said the government had overseen a tragedy for the people of her constituency and for the wider region, calling the move an “act of industrial vandalism”.

“Whilst these are all valid points, United Kingdom manufacturing organisations must also continue to look internally and review their own procedures, processes and business planning capabilities to ensure they are as efficient and lean as possible. It is time for the government to stop hiding behind European Union rules and follow the lead of the Italian, French and German governments by intervening to save a critical part of the British economy”.

SNP MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Marion Fellow, said the £80m support package was “not enough”, while Redcar MP Anna Turley said the package was “misleading and cheating” people, with up to £30m of the funding covering statutory redundancies.

1,700 workers were made redundant with the collapse of the steel firm.

“Steelworkers on Teesside will be furious that taxpayers’ money is being used in this way”.