MG Rover went into administration earlier this month

Ministers have pledged �150m for former staff at the Birmingham plant and its suppliers, but the Work Foundation said more money was needed for retraining.

The industry research group said funds for retraining currently came to as little as �5,000 per worker.

It also warned most MG Rover workers would have to travel to find new work.

The comments of the Work Foundation, which campaigns for better working conditions, came in its report 'Sent To Coventry? The Re-employment of the Longbridge 5,000'.

Poor employment picture

"The level of funding for training as opposed to other priorities needs to be urgently examined," said the report.

With long term unemployment in the Longbridge area at more than 16%, and at more than 24% in Birmingham as a whole - compared with the national average of 13.9% - the Work Foundation said retraining was vital to help the former MG Rover workers back into employment.

If they're [the former MG Rover workers] about to be sent to Coventry they need the means to get there Professor Marc Cowling, Work Foundation

The report also highlighted the fact that the manufacturing sector in Birmingham was particularly weak, with jobs having fallen by 28% over the past five years.

"The government's injection of money is likely to alleviate rather than resolve," said the report's co-author Nick Isles.

"The lessons from elsewhere tell us that retraining has to be of a specific type, both technical and vocational, as there are very few economic returns to other, less advanced forms of work-based training."

Professor Marc Cowling, who helped write the report, said MG Rover workers should also have their car loans underwritten so they can more easily travel outside their immediate area to find replacement work.

"If they're about to be sent to Coventry they need the means to get there," he said.

MG Rover continues to be run by administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The administrators said at the weekend they had received 200 expressions of interest from car manufacturers looking at buying parts of the company.