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SSI Redcar steel workers given £80m aid package | SSI Redcar steel workers given £80m aid package |
(about 1 hour later) | |
The government has announced a financial package of "up to £80m" to support SSI steel workers on Teesside. | |
It comes in the wake of Monday's announcement of the mothballing of the Redcar plant, with the loss of 1,700 jobs. | |
Details are still being worked through, but it will include cash for retraining and help for small local businesses. | |
It has also emerged that SSI's Thai parent company has begun a process which could end in administration. | |
The company posted on its website that it had entered "rehabilitation" under Thai law. | |
This means that, with its liabilities exceeding its assets, a planner would be appointed - effectively an administrator. | |
'Never made a profit' | |
The knock-on effect for the Redcar plant would be uncertain, although it could open the way for a take over. | |
However, no access to money may also lead to the coke ovens - which are being kept alight to allow the possibility of production resuming in the future - running out of fuel. | |
The government said that SSI wanted ministers to make an "open-ended funding commitment" to maintain the coke ovens, but this would have been "in breach of state aid rules". | |
The Department for Business said in a statement: "On the basis of the limited business case it was given, the government has no confidence that this is a realistic proposal for taxpayers to support. | |
"The company has never made a profit and the board's proposal would do nothing to address the huge debts outstanding to local suppliers and other parties." |