Jobless North East workers denied vital cash

May 11 2009 By Adrian Pearson, The Journal

THOUSANDS of workers made redundant across the North East are being denied help and money because the Government will not allow the region to run an emergency support fund, it has been claimed.

As around 2,000 Corus workers look to an uncertain future and jobs continue to go across the region, The Journal can reveal that the Government has refused to support a regional bid for a multi-million pound European help fund.

Euro MP Fiona Hall says she has told North regeneration bosses that a huge Globalisation Adjustment Fund could help support and train staff who lose their jobs as the recession deepens. But officers at development agency One North East would have to bid for the fund with support from Whitehall knowing that a previous attempt to win Government backing failed.

Ms Hall said Government civil servants are unwilling to hand over control of such funds to regional bosses, partly because the Department for Work and Pensions would have to find match funding for every pound spent.

The Liberal Democrat MEP said: "I have made it clear that we should be bidding for this fund, but the response to me has been that the DWP are lukewarm about this.

"Part of that is that reluctance is because they would rather have central Government control instead of the regional team going for this."

Ms Hall added: "I hope the Government will do everything they can to seek a way forward to secure threatened jobs.

"If the worst comes to the worst and jobs are indeed lost, I trust the Government will change its mind and support an application to the European Globalisation Fund."

Ms Hall has written to One North East urging agency staff to put together a bid for the much needed cash but has so far seen little support for the move.