08 December, 2009
Vera Baird, MP for Redcar, criticised Corus for allegedly sitting on the land in her Teesside constituency as the Government announced a £60m emergency package to bolster the region's economy.
The intervention, announced on Tuesday by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, comes four days after Corus disclosed its plan to axe 1,700 jobs and close its Redcar Blast Furnace, Lackenby Steelmaking and the Southbank Coke Ovens by the end of January.
Corus has allegedly been in talks since July with ERS, a Middlesbrough-based engineering company, which wants to build a multi-million pound dockyard for decommissioning North Sea oil rigs on a swathe of disused riverside land.
Mrs Baird, who was called in to the negotiations by ERS after Corus allegedly refused to sell the land, said: "Corus owe a great debt of responsibility to Teesside and they must start to sell land which they have refused to sell in the past. Quite a lot of it is prime riverside land and ERS say they could generate 7,000 jobs if they had access to it."
She said she had told Kirby Adams, the Corus chief executive, to sell the land when he spoke to her about the planned closures last Friday, and claimed to have enlisted the help of Lord Mandelson in driving the deal through. Corus refused to comment.
Lord Mandelson's said his rescue package would generate 3,000 new jobs in the region, and said the Government was "putting its money where its mouth is".
The measures include £30m of investment in low-carbon and advanced manufacturing industries, £10m for providing apprenticeships and support for new business and £20m of investment in the Wilton International Site, Teesside's other major employer.
source: www.telegraph.co.uk
