Regional company getting £200,000 in drive for jobs

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirmed the deal to give Halifax Rack and Screw Cutting £200,000 from the Regional Growth Fund to help to finance a £1.5m modernisation project.

The project, which will create 12 new jobs and safeguard seven existing posts at the firm, which manufactures precision products for construction, engineering, offshore and energy sectors, is the first of several Yorkshire bids to get its hands on money which was promised in a second round of applications to the £1.4bn fund.

Mr Clegg said: “Creating long-term jobs and long-term growth is our number one priority for Britain. The Regional Growth Fund is helping the economy grow in every region and across a range of industries.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable added: “This support continues to provide a significant boost to the local economies, lever in significant investment and will create jobs where they are needed most.”

So far £1.4bn has been pledged to 164 projects around the country, and the Government announced last November that another £1bn would be made available in another two rounds of bidding. Money has to be match-funded by private firms and must create or safeguard private sector jobs, particularly in areas facing heavy public sector job losses.

The Government has faced criticism because legal checks on the successful bids have taken months to complete before the money started to flow, but Mr Cable said 29 schemes have now received their funding and more than half the approved projects have now got under way, even if they have not received the cash yet.

Yesterday, in a House of Commons debate, Ministers came under greater pressure to tackle rising youth unemployment and bankers’ “excessive” bonuses.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds West, said Government promises to tackle bonuses were proving to be simply “warm words” and said there were a record number of young people out of work.

She said Ministers should be “compelled” to rethink their economic plans and called on the coalition to repeat Labour’s tax on bank bonuses to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.