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Possible green future for Corus workforce

1,700 Teeside steelworkers who lost their jobs on Friday may find new employment in the fresh green industry destined for the North East.

Corus announced the closure of their Redcar plant last week, but the region has been recommended as a potential site to build a Carbon Capture and Storage plant (CCS).

Its heavy industry and depleted oil and gas reserves in the North Sea makes the area one of the government’s prime spots for the new technology.

Andrew Sugden, Director of membership and policy at the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC), said: “Carbon capture and storage is an entirely new industry, it creates new opportunities both in terms of jobs and a supply chain.

“Given Friday’s events, NECC strongly urge the Government to accelerate plans for carbon capture and storage and make Teeside a hub for this industry.”

Figures released by the NECC confirmed that last Friday’s knock-on effect for the local economy could result in 4,000 jobs being lost.

It is now hoped that the government will accelerate plans for the new technology to quell a surge in unemployment.

Geoff Waterfield, Chairman of the multi unions group at Corus, added: “There is space to keep steel on Teeside and to have carbon capture and storage facilities.

“We will be in talks this week looking at every possible way to stop the devastation the closing of this plant will cause to the area.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .