Decommissioning of Corus steel plant begins
Despite last minute hopes that the UK government would at least be able to postpone, and possibly agree a sale, of the Corus Redcar steel plant, decommissioning began yesterday with the eventual loss of 1,600 jobs and the closure of a business which has been prominent in the region for over 150 years. While the fight to protect other Corus steel plants in the UK continues, with the unions expected to ballot members on industrial action, unfortunately it looks as though the Redcar region is set for a significant economic downturn.
Aside from the 1,600 job losses at the steel plant itself it is forecast and up to 8,000 jobs may be at risk from businesses which had depended upon trade connected with the plant. This is a major blow for the region and a major blow for the UK government in the run-up to the next general election. Indeed heavyweights such as Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson were prominent in the region this week amid signs they were looking to broker a last-minute agreement to keep the plant open.
While it will take up to 6 months to decommission the plant, each day without news on a possible sale is another nail in the coffin of the region and makes it more unlikely than ever that a buyer will step forward and indeed Corus will agree to sell the plant.
Share this..
Related stories
UK recession was the deepest since 1921
It has been revealed that the UK recession, which many believe ended in the final quarter of 2009, was the deepest and the hardest hitting since 1921. While it would be unfair to suggest that no other economies around the world have suffered to the same degree as the UK economy, there is no doubt that the UK is one of the slowest economies to recover. This has been a wake-up call to many who ro...
Read MoreErnst & Young ITEM Club downbeat on UK
The influential Ernst & Young ITEN Club Report has cast doubt on the short to medium term prospects of growth in the UK economy. While this influential association freely admits that the UK is likely to have left the recession in the final quarter of 2009, it believes this trend will not continue because a number of tax innovations and incentives have been taken away from the marketplace. It speci...
Read MoreWho actually controls the UK economy?
Over the last two years we have seen the UK government introduced a number of measures to try and inject more life into the UK economy and indeed bring the country out of recession. Even though the indications are that the UK economy will leave recession in the final quarter of 2009, many people are puzzled as to why it has taken so long for these financial initiatives from the authorities to actu...
Read MoreWhat are the risks to the UK economy from a recovery?
As we covered in one of our earlier posts, inflation figures released today have confounded critics who believed that the UK economy will still in recession. Many analysts have been forecasting further falls in inflation although the CPI and the RPI figures were nowhere near as bad as forecast. While many people will now be cheered by the fact the UK appears to be pulling away from recession there...
Read MoreLong-term unemployed in the UK has doubled in 10 years
The number of long-term unemployed in the UK has doubled to over 200,000 in the last 10 years according to the Trade Union Congress (TUC). The TUC has been very critical of the jobseekers allowance which pays out £64.30 a week, which is actually less than the poverty line in the UK. The fact that the number of long-term unemployed is continuing to rise is another major concern for the UK governme...
Read More