A FACTORY in the Valleys staffed by disabled people is to close, it was confirmed yesterday.

The government confirmed that 27 loss-making Remploy sites, including one in Abertillery, will shut, saying they could not be subsidised any longer.

It is thought the factories will shut between August and mid-December.

One union official said the announcement was a “sentence to life of unemployment and poverty”.

Another Gwent site – Croespenmaen – will be given a reprieve and will be subject to future consultation.

It is one of nine sites where Remploy is in negotiations with parties interested in buying all or part of the businesses.

The Abertillery site employs 21 disabled people while Croespenmaen employs 44 people, the vast majority of whom are disabled.

Workers are set to stage two 24-hour strikes at the sites in the coming weeks in protest at an announcement by the Government earlier this year over the closures.

The Government said money from the disability employment budget should be reinvested into other schemes to help disabled people find work.

Maria Miller, the disabilities minister, who was heckled by opposition MPs during her statement to the House of Commons, said Remploy workers had been informed of the announcement yesterday afternoon.

She said: “This is difficult news. We are doing everything we can to ensure that Remploy workers will receive a comprehensive package of support and guidance to make the transition from Government-funded sheltered employment to mainstream jobs.’’ Phil Davies, national officer of the GMB union, said: “To close these factories that employ disabled people in the present economic climate is a sentence to life of unemployment and poverty.”

The factories were established 66 years ago as part of the creation of the welfare state.

Workers are employed in enterprises that vary from furniture and packaging manufacturing to recycling electrical appliances and operating CCTV systems and control rooms.