The coalition Government is to create two new enterprise zones in the areas where BAE Systems’ workers are being made redundant.
Chancellor George Osborne said the zones, which give tax breaks to businesses that set up within them, will be created near Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire and Brough in East Yorkshire, home to the BAE sites where up to 3,000 workers are losing their jobs.
Speaking on the eve of his speech at the Conservative party conference, Osborne told Granada Reports: “It will be an area that new companies can come in to, get a big tax break for doing so, set up, create jobs to some of the very skilled people who sadly face redundancy at the moment.”
The move demonstrated that the Government was not simply standing on the sidelines when things like this happened, he attested. “We get in there, we roll up our sleeves and take action to help local people get back in to work,” Osborne said.
The new zones are expected to be up-and-running by next April. Enterprise zones are also being created in Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Derby, Nottingham, the Black Country, the Tees Valley, the West of England and the North East.
