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Corus Subsidiary Announces £8.3 Million Steel Support Package
03/08/2010 - UK Steel Enterprise, the Corus subsidiary that helps the economic regeneration of communities impacted by steel industry changes, announces an £8.3m package of support measures in the wake of the recent job losses at Teesside.
UK Steel Enterprise (UKSE), the Corus subsidiary that helps the economic regeneration of communities impacted by steel industry changes, has announced an £8.3m package of support measures in the wake of the recent job losses at Teesside.
UK Steel Enterprise Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corus, aims to improve the economies of areas affected by changes in the steel industry. It supports new and growing businesses with tailored finance packages, independent advice and by providing high quality managed business premises.
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Teesside Cast Products has been undergoing a partial mothballing since February 19. Corus said the partial mothballing, which had been announced in December 2009, was the result of an international consortium’s breaking of a binding contract.
The mothballing includes Teesside Cast Products’ Redcar Blast Furnace, Lackenby steelmaking and the South Bank Coke Ovens, and impacts some 1700 jobs.
Corus has made available additional information about the mothballing of Teesside Cast Products — including reasons, history of events leading up to the decision, details on what is happening now, information about the facility’s carbon credits, and more.
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- A £4.7m expansion of The Innovation Centre on Hartlepool’s Queens Meadow Business Park, supported by One North East. In addition to the Hartlepool Center, UKSE also operates a Center on the Kirkleatham Business Park at Redcar; together the two centers house and support around 80 young businesses.
- A new Regeneration Fund that will offer a combination of grants and loans designed specifically for start-up and fledgling businesses requiring less than the usual UKSE minimum loan and struggling to find funding elsewhere.
- An extra £600,000 for UKSE’s special community support fund, which will back local projects and fund business support initiatives.
Also as part of the package, UKSE will double its level of investment into new and growing businesses in the Northern region from £1.5m to £3m.
“The principal focus of this major new support package is to help the recovery from the mothballing of Teesside Cast Products,” said UK Steel Enterprise Regional Manager Simon Hamilton.
“We are very aware of the effects of this closure on Teesside, coupled with the difficulties that new and fledgling businesses are facing in the current economic situation,” he continued. “This package of measures is specifically designed to support and encourage former steelworkers and other entrepreneurs who have sound projects and want to set up their own businesses as well as existing companies who have expansion projects and could create new jobs for the area.
“We will be announcing the details of each measure in due course but we hope each one will make a valuable contribution to Teesside’s recovery and to the region,” Hamilton added. “We are liaising with Teesside Cast Products to offer former employees business planning advice and support where needed. We will also continue to work closely with local authorities and other business support organizations to make sure that we identify and target all possible areas where this new package can help.”
Over the past three decades, UK Steel Enterprise has invested a total of £15.1m in the Northern region, covering Tees Valley, Derwentside and West Cumbria. It has supported nearly 1000 companies, invested around £7.5m in providing business premises and helped to create more than 15,000 jobs.
Nationally, more than 4500 companies have benefited from UKSE support with around £72m of true risk capital being made available, £29m invested in workspace and £8m allocated to support community projects. Around 70,000 jobs have been created.
