‘Regulator must act to save pensions’

Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP for Barnsley Central, has condemned the Government for failing to prioritise the investigation into the pension scheme at Carrington Wire. Carrington Wire closed with the loss of more than 80 jobs in 2010. The Russian parent company Severstal said the decision was due to a contraction in the steel wire market.

In 2010, Craig Whittaker, the Conservative MP for Calder Valley, wrote to the Pensions Regulator, calling for an investigation into the position of the company’s pension scheme after Carrington Wire was sold out of the Severstal group. Mr Jarvis, who has a constituent who used to work at Carrington Wire, has repeatedly called on the Government to intervene and speed up the investigation process. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Pensions Regulator confirmed that proceedings were now ongoing.

Mr Jarvis said: “This case has dragged on for an unacceptably long time and I hope that we are now finally moving towards a satisfactory resolution.”

Severstal has previously said that it met all of its obligations to fund the pension scheme while Carrington Wire was under its ownership.