A BUSINESS plan is being drawn up to attract thousands of pounds of funding and encourage new businesses in the wake of 400 proposed job losses at Ulverston's GlaxoSmithKline factory.

Barrow-based Furness Enterprise has also agreed to put together a support package to help workers who may become jobless over the next two years if the drug-giant goes ahead with the proposal.

This will include helping them with CV writing and interview techniques.

Chief Executive of Furness Enterprise Harry Knowles said that all the agencies, including South Lakeland District Council, understood clearly that Glaxo had little alternative to its proposed course following a presentation given by Ulverston site director Kevin Hughes at the factory on Friday.

The company is blaming major price competition on key products and said the redundancies had to be made to secure the jobs of the other 650-employees at Ulverston.

Mr Knowles said Furness Enterprise would still do everything in its powers to help the company find an alternative solution to redundancies while working with other agencies to put together the business plan.

This would then be presented to the

North West Development Agency and other main funders to try to secure cash for the area.

He said funding would be used to create space for new industries in the area to try to recoup some of the 400 lost jobs.

Mr Knowles said: "The presentation that the company made was the most informative, honest and open that I have ever seen by senior management.

Everybody who was there could see that the company had no other way forward other than the proposed redundancies.

"I still remain perpetually optimistic and we will continue to work with the company to see if there is an alternative, but we have got to be pragmatic.

"There is a shortage of space for industry in the area so the business plan will highlight this.

It will be a very difficult task to attract new industry but it is what we have got to do because, if the redundancies go ahead, we will be losing 400 top quality jobs."