Remploy’s future under threat

The future of Oldham-based Remploy hangs in the balance after a Government review of quangos placed the organisation “under consideration.”

Set up after the Second World War, Remploy is the biggest employer of disabled people in the country — making everything from school furniture, footwear and wheelchairs to biological suits.

But its future is uncertain after it was included in the Government document with no explanation other than “under consideration”.

Remploy head office said it was unable to comment.

But Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas said: “It is outrageous that the Government is even thinking about getting rid of Remploy.

“If they do this they will make Mrs Thatcher look like a nursery teacher because Remploy is the best thing in our ‘Big Society’.”

It has been known for months the North West Regional Development Agency — set up to bring economic prosperity to the region — is to be scrapped but many organisations learnt of their fate yesterday.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to cut the number and cost of the bodies in their coalition agreement and had reviewed a staggering total of 901 bodies.

In a statement to MPs, Cabinet Minister Francis Maude said every quango had been vetted to assess whether it provided a crucial technical function or required political independence to carry out its work.

And he said: “People have been fed-up with the old way of doing business, where the ministers they voted for could often avoid taking responsibility for difficult and tough decisions by creating or hiding behind one of these quangos.”