GKN owner should pay back £67m, claims MP
THE owners of manufacturer GKN could be forced to pay back £67 million received from taxpayers, after pressing ahead with a decision to close their plant in Erdington.
Birmingham MP Jack Dromey (Lab Erdington) is pushing the Government to reclaim the cash from investment firm Melrose Industries, who bought GKN for £8.1 billion in 2018.
He spoke in the House of Commons, after 519 ‘highly skilled’ workers at the GKN Automotive plant in Chester Road, Erdington, accepted a revised redundancy offer, spelling the end of a battle to keep the site open.
Melrose is believed to have received £67 million from a range of
Government schemes since buying GKN, largely to support research and development.
Mr Dromey said: “For this country’s manufacturing base to prosper and succeed, it requires a firm commitment from Government to support the making and buying of goods manufactured in Britain.”
Speaking to business minister Lee Rowley, he said: “The Minister will be familiar with the shameful decision by Melrose to shut a factory in Chester Road, Erdington with 70 years of history; those manufacturing jobs were instead exported to Poland. What steps will he take to recoup the £67 million of taxpayers’ money given to Melrose to export jobs to Poland?
“Will he send an unmistakeable message to Melrose that it will get not one penny more of taxpayers’ support unless it works with the workforce and all the key stakeholders to find an alternative manufacturing use for its site in one of the most deprived communities in Britain?”
Mr Rowley said the Government would attempt to help GKN workers find new jobs.
He said: “We were disappointed, as he was, by GKN Melrose’s decision.
“Ultimately, such decisions are for individual companies, but we realise the significant impact on his community and are working with the local community to try to find alternative ways to support employees in the area.”
The 2018 takeover by Melrose was controversial, with Mr Dromey and trade union Unite calling on the Government to block it.
The closure by the firm follows the news in spring 2019 that it would close its aerospace plant in Kings Norton and five months later the same division said it was shedding 1,000 staff across its global plants by integrating four arms of the business.
The firm announced plans to close the Erdington plant in January this year and rejected an alternative plan put forward by Unite union officials, senior management at the plant, shop stewards and Mr Dromey in May. Work will shift to France and Poland.
Strike action announced in October was called off as bosses agreed to a crisis meeting, but evidently it came to nothing.
The Erdington site makes driveline systems for the car industry and is one of the UK’s oldest engineering firms. Its primary customer is Jaguar Land Rover, which has plants nearby by Castle Vale, and in Solihull.