Minister rules out steel rescue

The government will focus on retraining steel workers facing redundancy rather than bailing out the industry, the employment minister has said.

Jim Knight said millions of pounds of support would be put into skills packages for Corus staff, including those at its site in Scunthorpe.

Corus has announced almost 1,000 job cuts at the town's plant since January.

Mr Knight said resources would also be concentrated on encouraging workers to stay in the area.

The employment minister, who was visiting East Yorkshire on Tuesday, said he was "very concerned" about the plight of the Corus workers in Scunthorpe.

'Limited money'

"Getting them to stay in the area and help them get skills is what we are focused on," he added.

Mr Knight said it would not be possible for the government to bail out the steel industry as it had done with the car industry in the West Midlands.

"It would be great to be able to bail out all sorts of other industries, but in the end there is a limit to the amount of money the government has got to spend on the taxpayers' behalf and we can't do it for everyone, much as we would like to," he said.