'We can't wait any longer over helicopter factory's future'

Ben Clarke has been building helicopters for more than two decades, like his uncle and grandfather before him.

And he had hoped his son and daughter would be able to do the same.

"I did my apprenticeship here, I've worked in the flight shed for over 20 years, it means a huge amount to me," he said.

But he is one of more than 3,000 people whose jobs are at risk, said the local MP, if a new government contract is not awarded soon to the UK's last military helicopter factory.

"Until the contract is signed there's a huge risk for all the employees here," said Clarke. "We have to be able to have some certainty, now. We can't wait any longer."

The Leonardo site in Yeovil, Somerset, has been operating for more than 80 years, originally as Westland Helicopters.

CEO Roberto Cingolani said last November the company could not "continue to subsidise Yeovil" without a new government contract, and this week an urgent debate was held in Parliament.

The government said it would announce the outcome of the contract, for which Leonardo is the only bidder, "as soon as possible".

Clarke is now the Unite union convenor for the Yeovil site and said his colleagues echo his concerns.

"The uncertainty has been going on for a long time now.

"We have a lot of young people that we're training currently and the delays just cause anxiety for all those young people."

It is not the first time over the years the future of the helicopter industry in Yeovil has said to be at risk, but Clarke said this time feels "serious".

Yeovil's Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance said the Leonardo site contributes £320m to the local economy.

More than 10,000 people are indirectly employed in the local supply chain with their jobs also at risk if the site was closed.

Carole Champion is chief executive of Needles and Pins Aerospace in Somerton which provides textiles for the industry, from insulation blankets to helicopter covers.

"Leonardo was our first client and it still is a very important client, but, thank God, we've been able to spread our base now," she said.

Champion wants the government to "pull its finger out" and set a date by which it will award the contract.

"We invested a lot of money in this company, moving to this new premises, we hired six new seamstresses, two engineers, a planner, an operations person and two apprentices.

"Our plans are to get bigger again but if they won't give the contract why are we doing this for?

"We have invested all this money for about six months to get ourselves ready and there's still no sign - it's not good enough, not for me," she said.

Champion said if Leonardo were to close it would not mean "the end" for her business, but would affect its cash flow.

"We certainly wouldn't expand and we would have to seriously consider whether or not we would keep all the staff we have now, which would be an awful shame."

Needles and Pins' lead engineer Phill Mason was brought in partly in anticipation of the new medium helicopter contract being awarded to Leonardo.

"As an organisation we've got enough other customers and other projects that I think we are okay, but there are some other businesses that purely have Leonardo as a customer," he said.

"I think Leonardo spend around £400m a year and a third of that goes to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) - they try to keep their supply base within around 50 miles," added Mason.

"The government will make a final decision on the award for NMH (New Medium Helicopters contract) through the wider Defence Investment Plan which will be announced shortly," Defence Minister Luke Pollard told MPs on Monday.

Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: "Leonardo remains an important strategic partner for the MoD.

"We are working flat out to deliver the DIP which will be published as soon as possible, and is backed by the government's largest sustained increase in defence investment since the end of the Cold War."

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