A year after steelmaker SSI UK’s collapse, Redcar MP Anna Turley says the town is ready for the challenge of rebuilding its industrial repute.

THIS time last year, 175 years of steel production on Teesside was ended by an act of industrial vandalism, when SSI went into liquidation and the Government refused to step in.

The subsequent challenges our communities have faced following the closure of Redcar blast furnace and coke ovens have been enormous.

As a community we have pulled together and I would like to pay tribute to the workforce for their resilience and dignity.

I would also like to thank everyone involved with supporting them over the past 12 months, including local businesses, colleges and training providers, Community trade union, employment advisers and staff in other support agencies, local charities including MIND, and of course the Taskforce who have led the local response.

It is clear from a report published by the Taskforce last week that some progress has been achieved; putting in place training courses, securing redundancy payments and the protective award payments, setting up a Safety Net Fund for those who need emergency financial support, subsidising local businesses to take on ex-steelworkers and helping others to set up on their own.

I would also like to mention the Teesside Steel Appeal that was driven by so many members of the community, including the impressive young Ben Hebden, and helped many families get through a difficult Christmas.

I am pleased many hundreds of people have found new work, including the young apprentices who were just starting out in their careers when the steelworks closed. There have been some tremendous successes for a number of individuals who have started out brave new ventures, and will probably never look back.

But ultimately all the training courses in the world can never replace the large number of decent, secure, well-paid jobs in a vital foundation industry.

Many of those who have found work have seen their salaries halved, their job-security more fragile, or have had to move away entirely to find new opportunities. There are many in the wider community too, whose struggles have never been logged or categorised.

The window cleaners and child-minders, the shop-keepers and the hairdressers who have all seen the knock-on effect of less money in our local economy.

There are still far too many people struggling.

I had a former SSI worker attend a surgery earlier this month who had only been accepted for one interview in the year.

So much more needs to be done to create opportunities and to replace the work we have lost in order to enable our area and our people to fulfil their potential.

Rebuilding our fractured local economy will take time, certainly years.

But I refuse to let it take generations, as it has done in other former coal and steel areas devastated under previous Tory governments.

Key to the regeneration of Teesside is the former site of the steelworks.

This 1,798-acre site has enormous potential to drive the vital regeneration of our local economy and society.

The future use of this site could create thousands of jobs in a wide range of industries, from steel recycling to energy and power; from imports and exports to chemical processing.

The problem is that the land still remains in the hands of the Official Receiver on behalf of the Thai Banks who currently stand in the way of regenerating the site.

We cannot allow the Thai Banks to hold our future to ransom.

In Parliament, I have tabled a number of questions to ministers on the future of the site, the influence of the Thai Banks and the environmental challenge the site currently poses.

I've asked for guarantees that any unspent funds in the Taskforce pot will not be clawed back by the Government, and I've requested assurances that Teesside does not lose out from withdrawn European Union funding after Brexit.

I also met with Greg Clark, the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, alongside council leader Sue Jeffrey, to discuss these issues further.

I hope that as a South Bank lad he will better understand the needs of our area than his predecessor.

The government's promise of a comprehensive Industrial Strategy now needs to be translated into action.

We need to see their commitment to an industrial strategy for Teesside, building on the work done by Lord Heseltine, which brings jobs and growth to our area and which makes the most of the opportunities Brexit provides.

We need their help to ensure we can retain and strengthen the skills of our superb workforce; that we can make the most of new technological opportunities; that we can be a world-leader in research and development and that we can build on our legendary industrial heritage.

Teesside continues to have huge industrial potential and should be looking to punch above its weight on the global stage.

With the right support we can bring many more decent jobs to our area and truly regenerate our local economy and our communities.

We are certainly up for the challenge.

I hope the government will be too.