The purpose of the funding is to assist workers in finding new jobs, gaining skills and qualifications in areas where there are vacancies, and assisting local businesses whose primary customer is Tata Steel in finding new markets.
Last month, Tata began a voluntary redundancy process and requested expressions of interest by August 7.
On Thursday, Ms. Stevens will serve as the second chair of the Tata Steel Port Talbot transition board, which was established by the previous Conservative government.
Talking before the gathering she said the “arrival of an underlying £13.5m in financing shows that we will act definitively to help laborers and organizations in Port Talbot, working with Welsh government, associations and the more extensive local area”.
“A safety net in place now to ensure we can back workers and businesses, whatever happens,” she stated of the funding.
The pastor will likewise declare that in excess of 50 organizations have marked a vow to help any specialists drove away from their positions in the steelworks.
A new £1.25 billion electric arc furnace that will melt scrap steel and requires far fewer workers than traditional blast furnaces was promised to Tata by the previous Conservative government.
The new furnace’s construction is expected to begin in August 2025.
Rajesh Nair, CEO of Tata Steel UK, stated: The transition board was established to help employees of Tata Steel and local supply chain businesses, so today’s announcement and the intention to assist the region and local communities in growing in accordance with the changing requirements of the developing industrial ecosystem in south Wales are very welcome.”
Alun Davies, the national steel officer for the Community Union, said that Ms. Stevens had done something “at pace to ensure that this first tranche of funding can be released as quickly as possible.”
However, he emphasized that “it remains our firm belief that no compulsory redundancies are necessary” and that “an alternative approach is still possible.” The GMB union’s Charlotte Brumpton-Childs described the meeting of the transition board as “a welcome sign of the reset this new government offers.”
She stated, “We are eager to hear more about the government’s commitments to rapid and targeted support for industry.”
Peter Hughes, Unite’s regional secretary for Wales, stated that his organization was “continuing to fight the workers’ corner in ongoing talks with Labour and Tata over its UK operations.” Lord Davies of Gower, the Conservative shadow Welsh secretary, stated that he was “very pleased to see that financial support from the transition board is reaching those impacted.”
He added, “I am also pleased that Jo Stevens and her colleagues have stopped engaging in deeply irresponsible comments, where they implied that a better deal was possible.” “This deal was only possible because the previous Conservative government intervened in Port Talbot, with one of the biggest support packages in the history of steelmaking to save as many jobs as we could,” he said.
Luke Fletcher, a spokesperson for Plaid Cymru’s economy and energy, praised the transition board for “moving to protect workers if the worst case scenario were to take place.”
“Plaid Cymru keeps on approaching the UK Work government to battle without holding back for the steel laborers in their talks and investigate every possibility in expected choices, including nationalization, to get the fate of a decisively significant resource,” he said.
“We are unable to accept Tata’s current proposals.”
