The country’s biggest employer of disabled workers has almost halved the number of factories it wants to close, according to plans submitted on Monday to the Department of Work and Pensions.

Remploy, a state-funded company, is seeking to close 17 of its 83 factories and merge another 11 plants. Employing about 5,000 disabled people, Remploy had previously proposed closing 32 factories and merging 11.