Tata job cuts: Warning over ‘cataclysm’ as Tata axes 1170 roles

Tata Steel has cut 1170 jobs as Mayor Boris Johnson’s economic adviser warned of the “cataclysmic” effect of the industry’s woes on local communities.

Indian-owned Tata, hit by a glut of cheap Chinese steel, is cutting 900 jobs in Scunthorpe and 270 in Lanarkshire.

The losses come after SSI closed its Redcar plant and steel engineering firm Caparo slid into administration.

Some 5000 jobs — a sixth of the steel industry workforce — are under threat.

Steel industry lobbying groups and unions have called for government intervention, but mayoral economic adviser Gerard Lyons said: “Often in this situation it is difficult to get quick wins, and if often if there are, they are expensive quick wins.”

He added: “People might think ‘we bailed out the banks, so can’t we bail out everybody else’, but the banking sector was so embedded in the lifeblood of the economy the alternative would have had a worse outcome for everyone.

“In terms of steel, you don’t necessarily get that same national impact, but there is no doubt in regional areas like Redcar it will have a perhaps cataclysmic effect, and in the near-term a huge shock on the local and regional economy.”

UK Steel director Gareth Stace demanded “a commitment from all parts of government at the highest level to ensure the sector’s survival in the UK”.

He said: “The Prime Minister can demonstrate that he is prepared to lead this commitment by stepping in this week and pressing the Chinese premier about the dumping of cheap steel which is one of the major factors killing our industry.”

The industry has called on politicians to ease the burden on the industry by bringing forward a government scheme to compensate for higher energy costs and cutting its business rate bills to match its European rivals.