British Gas Oldbury jobs bombshell: David Cameron announces taskforce to help axed staff
The Prime Minister has assembled a taskforce of ministers to support workers affected by the proposed closure of British Gas's Oldbury offices.
The Swallowfield One site, which operates as a call centre and offices and employs 684 staff, has been earmarked for closure by the firm in a bid to reduce costs.
During Prime Minister's Questions David Cameron told the Commons that a taskforce would be made available to enter discussions with the company and to assist workers affected by the shock news.
MORE: British Gas to axe 684 Oldbury jobs in office closure bombshell
It will be led by the Minister for Small Business, Anna Soubry, under the guidance of Business Secretary Sajid Javid.
MPs had been made aware of the British Gas announcement shortly before the start of PMQs.
It prompted Warley's Labour MP John Spellar to ask what measures would be put in place to either save jobs or create 'alternative options' for the workforce at the Wolverhampton Road site.
In response the Prime Minister said: "We will make sure that a taskforce of ministers is available to talk to the company, to talk to the local community, to provide all the assistance in terms of re-training and other things that can be done to help."
Later in the afternoon Mr Spellar met with ministers to map out the initial plans for the taskforce.
He said: "This news has come completely out of the blue.
"Only recently I have been working with British Gas and the council to see about increasing car parking spaces at the site because it is so overcrowded.
"That doesn't indicate a company that is struggling. The first thing we need to do is to get to the bottom of why this has happened.
"There have been no signs that their business has been going into decline. The priority is saving the site and making sure the best interests of the staff are taken care of."
Mr Spellar added that he was due to meet with bosses at British Gas tomorrow in an effort to get 'a true picture' of the prospects for the site.
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson said he was 'extremely concerned' over the potential loss of jobs at the site. Sandwell Council's acting leader, Councillor Steve Eling, said he welcomed the setting up of the taskforce.
"The Government keep talking about new job creation in the Black Country and how important that is," he added.
"But week after week we seem to be getting bad news about jobs going in the West Midlands – we had Caparo, Tata and then this comes up.
"Hopefully sufficient pressure can be brought to bear so that British Gas change their minds.
"Clearly the council will help in whatever way we can with the work of the taskforce."
British Gas bosses say they made the 'difficult decision' to propose closing the Oldbury site due to customers increasingly contacting them via online platforms.
The firm's managing director of customer operations, Claire Miles, said: "Since last summer British Gas has been implementing a strategy to improve service and
reduce costs, to ensure we can price competitively.
"We must also respond to the changing needs of our customers, and they increasingly want to contact us online.
"For these reasons we are planning to consolidate our activity on fewer sites, and we have made the difficult decision to propose closing our Oldbury office and call centre.
"I recognise that the announcement represents difficult news for our employees who may be affected. Our priority now is to support all those potentially impacted, and to ensure a fair and transparent consultation process, working with our people and their representatives."
So far this year British Gas parent company Centrica has cut 800 jobs at other sites in the UK.
It is looking at relocating its Oldbury operation between three other sites in Birmingham, Leicester and Stockton, with plans to transform them into 'centres of excellence'.
Unison has warned that the scale of the cuts will make compulsory redundancies 'hard to avoid'.
