Black Country businesses could be subsidised from an £800,000 funding boost in a bid to help more jobless people back into work.

The Government cash has been earmarked for cutting unemployment among young adults in Sandwell.

Finance chiefs at Sandwell Council are looking into plans to offer financial incentives for employers in the borough to take on new workers. Council officers will now begin preparing reports on how best to spend the money, which would be drawn from the working neighbourhoods fund.

Finance chiefs are draw-ing up the authority’s budget proposals for next financial year.

At the start of the current financial year, it was ann-ounced that an extra £200,000 was being put towards services such as providing debt advice to recession-hit families, and a £1 million contingency pot was put aside.

In October, councillors unveiled plans to move a £250,000 underspend from other departments to help secure jobs in the planning department, which was hit by the property slump.

Sandwell Council leader Councillor Steve Eling said the £800,000 Government handout would provide a welcome boost in the ongoing financial environment and would be put to good use.

“We haven’t specifically allocated it yet, but I’m thinking about how we might be able to use at least a good chunk of it, if not all of it, in terms of dealing with young people who are out of work,” he said.

“It would be targeting them with some sort of work-type activity that would improve work skills.

“We would be looking at targeting the young unemployed, particularly the 16-19 age bracket.

“It is tough for everybody, but it is really tough for young people in that sort of age bracket if they have not continued with education or got a decent training package.”

Councillor Eling added: “If we can use this to work with employers to get young people in then I am quite open on what that might involve.

“If we’ve got some additional money then we can do some more in terms of opportunities where we would possibly subsidise them going into employment.”