SNOWDROPS may have been bobbing their heads in the breeze but the bitingly cold air was filled with white flakes when the SSI task force made a recent visit to Consett.

Spring often comes late to the North West Durham town that became even more exposed to the elements after its steel works was torn down 35 years ago.

"A very snowy, rainy, blustery day - but that’s Consett isn’t it?" was how Amanda Skelton, Redcar & Cleveland council leader, described the scene on the day she took her team on a fact finding visit to the former steel town.

Alongside her day job Ms Skelton leads the task force distributing the £50m Government fighting fund set up in the wake of SSI's closure. Thus far it has helped hundreds of people to find work, start training schemes, and also backed 56 entrepreneurs to launch their own businesses.

But Ms Skelton voiced concerns that hundreds of former SSI and supply chain workers - an estimated 900 people - are still out of work. Finding jobs for them is "a huge challenge" she admitted.

Consett was once a byword for industrial decline but after a very grim period it eventually became a story of hope and new jobs - two things that were in short supply around Redcar when its iron and steel plant was allowed to shut in October.

The fact is that Redcar wants to do many of things Consett achieved - only much quicker.

"How many decades is it - three, four - until Consett came back? That's what we don't bloody want in 35 years time to say: 'Oh look finally we have saved the SSI Redcar site'. We want to get on with it now," Business Minister Anna Soubry told The Northern Echo during a visit to Teesside this week when she met former SSI workers.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald asked what the point was of Ms Soubry’s brief trip. "He said: The last thing we need is more warms words and platitudes.

“I was furious watching her interview on site, with her patronising casual approach. Her unprofessional tone was an insult to everyone who has lost their jobs.

“She could at least do us the courtesy of leaving it a few years before disgracefully and insultingly re-writing such recent history. What we needed when SSI was under threat, and what we still need now, was and is direct Government action so that Teesside can begin to recover from such a massive body blow."

Creating jobs is only one of the challenges the area faces.

Cleaning up the former steel site for housing or industrial development could cost hundreds of millions of pounds and it is still unclear where the money will come from.

In August a team of consultants will survey the land and report back to ministers.

Ms Soubry was derided for her recent suggestion the site - some of which is heavily polluted - could be turned into a nature reserve. This week she said: "I think the potential is enormous. We need to see it as an asset not a problem.

"It's going to cost a lot (to clean up). Don't ask me where the money is going to come from. I don't know."

In the meantime, Ms Skelton's team seek to learn from mistakes of the past.

She said: "When you think about what happened to Consett back in the early eighties and the devastating impact that had we felt we all needed to learn and make sure that we took on board all of the good things that they did through their process of recovery. It was important that any of the things that weren’t so good and hadn't worked we needed to learn as well.

"We all went up there and had a really good look around. It was fascinating to see what they have done and how the area has been transformed, new jobs created and new industries attracted. I know it took a long time but they have a really strong story to tell about a community that can recover.

"We’ve known for a long time that we’ve been over-reliant on a few key employers and we have wanted to diversify and really have a much more varied industrial base in this area. For many years this has been the case. This is a big opportunity to do that so we have got to think about the future and what is possible that will create jobs and give us that security and strength in our economy going forward."

Mr McDonald urged ministers to support some of the areas ambitious firms. “What this Government can do is get behind the Metals Industry Catapult initiative led by MPI [Metals Processing Institute] and TWI [The Welding Institute]. We have world-class technology right here on Teesside that is much needed, not only in the steel industry but right across the metals and materials sector.

“This government needs to support such brilliant initiatives. The business case is overwhelming.

“It’s no surprise that once again, the minister for the cynically titled ‘northern powerhouse’ is nowhere to be seen on this and has had nothing to say to encourage the exciting industrial and manufacturing potential that exists here, and is primed ready to go, on his doorstep.

“This Government just goes through the motions. They really don’t give a damn about Teesside or about the industrial future of our country. They have no meaningful commitment to helping Teesside thrive again. They just play politics.

“They are demeaning the real energy and commitment to the industrial renaissance of Teesside and this exposes a government with no ideas, little enthusiasm and cloth ears”.

Asked if she understood that the hundreds of people still out of work could soon give up hope of finding jobs, Ms Skelton said: "I hope they don’t feel that. I hope they are feeling that we are as concerned about them as we were about everybody else. The help and support is still there. We have plenty of money and all of the schemes and projects that we have got going to help people retrain, to improve their skills, to maybe set up their own businesses – all of that help and support is still there, so I would urge them to access that and work with us and together I am sure that we will be able to find a bright future for them."