Hewlett-Packard is to receive £7 million in government subsidies in return for creating 700 jobs at a service centre in Renfrewshire, Scotland. 

HP cut 700 manufacturing jobs at the same facility last year, moving the work to the Czech Republic. With the help of a £7 million grant from Scottish Enterprise, the company will now convert the Renfrewshire site into a "hub for developing and delivering IT services to UK clients".

The new jobs will "focus on supply chain, telephone and web sales, marketing and customer support", HP said in a statement. 

Trade union Unite welcomed the creation of the new jobs but argued that it did not compensate for the number of roles HP has axed in the UK recently, which it claims is many as 4,000 since 2008.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour MP Hugh Henry (a former IBM employee) questioned the wisdom of granting a company money for effectively keeping its level of local employment the same.

"It does seem strange that a company can cut 700 jobs, then create 700 jobs and then be given £7m of taxpayers’ money," Henry told Scottish newspaper The Herald. "We need an explanation about the ethics of this and whether it represents best use of taxpayers’ money.”

HP declined to comment in reaction to these statements.