Indeed, demands are being made for more redundancies and voluntary severances to reduce that figure still further.
Neither of them—this is crucial—had the funds to foot the unavoidable bill for severances.
The total provision for severances of all kinds within the £87 million is over £40 million, about half of the total of new money.
A substantial amount will be needed for further severances, as there are still substantial surpluses in both ports.
Secondly, the scheme also has to meet the cost of severances in other ports.
In the event, about 1,100 severances were achieved.
To help the industry we have made a series of stop-gap arrangements to enable the board to fund those severances.
We will also seek to minimise compulsory severances.
