MG Rover: EU cash to rejuvenate region

The European Commission has offered to provide the West Midlands with an emergency cash injection following the collapse of the MG Rover car group.

A team of EU experts and Commission officials are currently in Birmingham for discussions with the government about fresh EU grants and loans to the area.

The funding has not yet been confirmed, but it is expected to be around £30m to £60m.

An emergency cash package is being put together by the government to help those affected by the Longbridge plant's closure and the resulting job losses.

The European money will be used to boost this fund, and some of the £625 million which the Commission has already contributed to the region is likely to be redirected to offset the impact of the plant's closure on local industries.

The EU's commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Houbner, said she was aware of the impact the job losses would have in Birmingham and the West Midlands as a whole.

Speaking in Brussels she said: "The Commission wishes to be of the greatest possible assistance in this matter."

The money which has already been given to the West Midlands has been targeted on boosting the area's industrial diversity, encouraging the development of new "high-growth" industrial sectors and providing training  facilities.

A Commission statement said some of this money "could now be redirected to alleviate the consequences of large scale redundancies".

"The team of EU experts will also examine how EU grant finance could be combined with loans to lever additional financial resources into the emergency aid package being put in place by the UK government," the statement added.