Ashok and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council Leader George Dunning said today (September 22nd 2009) that they were ‘very happy’ to announce that following meetings between them and the management of Corus’s Skinningrove plant, the council were able to accede to Corus’s request for business rate relief, thus easing pressure on the hard pressed steel giant’s resources.

 Ashok Kumar said “Due to recession pressures, the Corus management and Unions at Skinningrove approached me to see if I could help broker assistance from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in respect of the site’s business rates.   I am glad to say that I have been told today that the he Council can now assist Corus by offering to defer the business rates 2009/10 increase in respect of the plant for a period of two years – and that similar help can probably be offered for parts of the Redcar TCP site in the near future.  This will allow Corus 6 months additional cash flow to assist them in maintaining business and – crucially - protecting jobs”      

 “This is, I believe, a striking and visible way in which Labour MP’s and a Labour run local authority can help our local steel industry in a concrete and meaningful way and in a way which I know will be appreciated by Corus workers in these difficult days”

 Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council leader George Dunning said “Ashok lobbied me to meet with the Skinningrove management and Trade Unions and I believe this offer will be one that they will both very much welcome.  It is a cash shot in the arm that will go a long way, I believe, to helping the Skinningrove works and – subject to clearance from the valuation office with an apportionment certificate for the disused parts of the site. – the Redcar and Lackenby TCP complex also. Both Ashok and I are former steelworkers and we both know how strategically important the industry is to Teesside and to the hearts of Teesside’s people.”