EIGHTY workers at the closure threatened Bolton Remploy factory have been thrown a lifeline after the Government announced extra financial help for the troubled national company.

Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People made the announcement following a report on the company's future by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Stephen Duckworth, chief executive of Disability Matters. It showed the average annual subsidy for Remploy, which employs 9,000 people nationwide, is £18,000 per person, with the highest subsidies coming in at over £48,000 per person.

The report set out possible scenarios, ranging from the status quo to closure of the 83-strong factory network. However, the minister rejected both those options and confirmed five-year funding of £111 million per year to enable the company to plan for the future, with the aim of helping more disabled people into work.

But she made it clear the company would have to modernise to become financially sustainable.

She said: "I will be asking the board of Remploy to bring forward a five-year restructuring plan. We are giving Remploy the necessary modernisation funding to lay the ground work for this plan.

"I expect that full and meaningful consultation with the unions and Remploy employees will take place as this strategy is developed.

Bob Warner, Remploy chief executive, said: "We welcome the Government's endorsement of our strategic direction and encouragement to push ahead with the expansion of our Interwork employment services division, which last year found 4,300 jobs for disabled people."

But the GMB union criticised the report as "worthless", saying it was compiled from Remploy management's own figures, which were unreliable, and it called for the Remploy board and senior managers to be sacked. It said that the restructure would inevitably lead to the closure of up to 58 factories, including Bolton, by the end of 2007, and a further 19 would probably go in 2009.