Rover to cost taxpayers £231m
Government puts aside £231m for Rover, to be spent over three years
Rover’s collapse is set to cost the taxpayer £231m, the government has
revealed.
Retraining for former workers at the Birmingham car company has cost £50m,
while £6.5m was spent to keep the company in operation for a week in April while
a buyer was sought.
About 6,000 jobs were lost when Rover ceased trading with debts of £1.4bn,
but it is believed that more than half of its workers have found new jobs, and
most of the others have enrolled on training courses.
Trade and Industry minister Ian Pearson, MP for Dudley South, told the BBC:
‘£231m is the money allocated (but) it hasn’t all been spent. Some is due to be
spent over three years and some is for wider projects in the supply chain.’