Tata is edging closer to retaining its loss-making UK steel business as the company tries to nail down details of financial support on offer from the Government.
They say they choose which branches to close on the basis of where they have the fewest customers and deny they specifically target poorer areas.
Executives from the company have held what one Whitehall insider described as “daily” meetings with officials from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for the past three weeks.
These talks are understood to be focusing on the mechanics of how the Government will deliver on its promises of financial support for the 11,000-employee business, which is centred around the sprawling Port Talbot steel plant.