TRANSPORT minister Geoff Hoon has been asked by the city’s MP, Hugh Bayley to help reduce the number of job losses at York-based rail and plant firm, Jarvis.

The company announced last month that it needed to cut 450 jobs across the country after its major client, Network Rail, announced it would defer spending during the first year of a five-year plan of network improvements funded by the Government.

Jarvis, which is one of Network Rail’s four preferred renewals contractors, has been hit hard by the decision and said it had no choice but to shed the jobs.

However, in a Transport Minister’s questions session in Westminster on Thursday, Mr Bayley urged the Secretary of State to press Network Rail to sign next year’s contracts as soon as possible, so that some of the men can go back to work.

He said: “The Government are right to invest in transport infrastructure during the economic downturn, but despite having more money, Network Rail this year cut its spending on track renewals, and Jarvis plc, a York-based company that does such work, had to make 450 people redundant.

“Would it not be better for the Government’s money to be used to improve the railway, not to make redundancy payments?”

Mr Hoon pointed out the Government had allocated £15 billion to the railways over the next five years. He said: “This is part of a total of £26.7 billion that Network Rail has to manage and improve the network over that period.

“We do not allocate funding specifically for track renewals. It is for Network Rail to decide the level of expenditure on track renewals given its overall funding, which is determined by the Office Of Rail Regulation.

“I emphasise that Network Rail’s total output will remain as previously planned.

“One reason for re-phasing the work is to allow what is essentially new technology to be available in the form of modular sets of points and new equipment that will allow the work to be done more efficiently and effectively.”

Following the parliamentary session, Mr Bayley said he hoped those workers who lost their jobs would not begin looking for employment overseas.

“It would be a tragedy if when work started coming in, all the workforce had gone abroad” he said.