New jobs for 400 ex-Rover workers

Rover collapsed in April with the loss of more than 5,500 jobs

More than 400 ex-MG Rover staff are in new jobs and 800 are on training courses says a group helping former workers at the car maker.

At least £2m has been paid to supply companies in emergency grants, safeguarding 2,498 jobs in the short term, the MG Rover Task Force added.

New Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson visited the West Midlands on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Administrators are still studying five offers to buy parts of the company.

'Breathing space'

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is assessing offers from three firms to buy the sports car side of the business and two interested in the rest.

It narrowed down the list of potential buyers from about a dozen serious contenders to five after studying details of how the interested parties would finance any deal.

PwC has said there was still an outside possibility some form of car production could resume at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham.

Mr Johnson met members of the task force and visited Rimstock, one of the firms to be given aid aimed at helping it stay in business despite losing orders as a result of Rover's demise.

The minister also met Gemma Cartwright, the wife of a former Rover worker, who helped set up a support group.

The task force's chairman, Nick Paul, said: "For companies hit by MG Rover's closure, the grants we have been able to offer have provided short-term breathing space.

"Our priority now is to work with these companies to offer them longer-term support to find new markets for their products and get on with life without MG Rover."

The company collapsed in April with the loss of more than 5,500 jobs.