Government's £1.5m to help redundant Tata steelworkers

Specific training and accreditation courses at FE colleges will be developed with the Skills Funding Agency.

An additional £350,000 has been announced to support supply chain businesses hit by Tata’s announcement of 720 job losses, including 490 in Rotherham.

Rotherham Borough Council leader Cllr Chris Read said: “In very difficult circumstances, this is welcome news from the Government, accepting the case we made for extra funding to support the training needs of people facing redundancy from Tata.

“In addition, I am writing to hundreds of companies involved in the supply chain to Tata, opening a conversation about what more can be done to help prevent the loss of more jobs as the knock-on consequences are felt in the wider economy.”

The Government is also considering a request from the Sheffield City Region for another £2.5 million in business support grants.

UK Steel Enterprise — the regeneration subsidiary of Tata — has pledged £1.55 million for job creation.

The SCR also has between £3 million and £4 million available from its existing Business Investment Fund for affected supply chain businesses.

MP John Healey also welcomed news of the support, saying: “The minister promised me she would turn round our bid for funding quickly, and I am pleased to hear the Government has agreed to part of our request and confirmed nearly £2 million.

“Now we need the remaining £2.5m to support businesses in the supply chain, and I will be pressing the minister to release that as soon as possible.

“We need to give our steel workers and our local economy all the help we can.”