MORE than £1,000 will be spent helping each worker at a factory find a new job.

Emergency funding of £785,000 has been pledged to find jobs for 761 staff at LG Philips Displays, in Durham.

The plant, which makes television tubes, will close in July. The Learning and Skills Council is providing £500,000, LG Philips will add a further £200,000 and £85,000 is coming from JobCentre Plus.

The money will be spent on an in-house job centre at the plant, which will open next month and operate until September.

The Government money was confirmed by Prime Minister Tony Blair last night after meeting a delegation led by Durham City MP Gerry Steinberg.

Mr Steinberg said: "I'm still very disappointed that the factory will be closing.

"My number one priority as the local MP will be to ensure that every possible help is provided to the workers to secure new jobs."

Plant director David Coppock said: "Tony Blair asked us several times what he could do to help. My overriding impression was one of genuine concern and a real will to help."

The factory has produced cathode ray tube sets since 1971. It blamed the closure on global market pressures, partly due to growing demand for flat-screen TVs.

Durham County Council deputy chief executive Mark Lloyd is leading a multi-agency response group that aims to have 90 per cent of the workers in training or new jobs by October.