Defence: British Steel

Lord Brookman Excerpts

Tuesday 30th April 2019 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, at the moment, as my noble friend will know, it is a matter of law that all ships not classified as warships are procured through international competition. After we leave the EU, it will be open to us to decide whether to continue with that practice as a matter of policy, but we will be guided in our thinking by the need to strike the best balance between value for money and protecting national security.

[Lord Brookman (Lab)]

My Lords, steelworkers throughout the country will be pleased that my noble friend Lord Hoyle has tabled this Question. It has been a long time coming round, but it will do so again and again. My noble friend and I have a great deal of respect for the trade union leadership in the steel industry, which covers all the various unions involved. They continually face capacity and manpower issues, a point touched on by my noble friend a moment ago. As a past general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation—only five foot five inches tall and I got the job of general secretary of a steelworkers’ union; just imagine that happening today—I know the problems and issues the officials face. They have been facing them for many years because this is not a new situation.

[A noble Lord]

Question!

[Lord Brookman]

I am just coming to my question. I recall a debate held some years ago in this Chamber in which the issue was raised. There were 19 speakers all talking in the same vein as we are today: save the steel industry, look after the jobs and get the people working. Someone came up to me afterwards and said—

[A noble Lord]

Question!

[Lord Brookman]

I am coming to it. He said, “Keith, that was all right, but you must realise that we live in a post-industrial society”. If that is the case, we have a dim future in front of us.

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord is absolutely right to point out that the UK steel industry has faced major challenges over the past three to four years, in particular from international competition and high infrastructure costs. Those challenges continue. But steel is one of this country’s foundation industries, which is why we have supported the sector in a variety of ways. As it is an energy-intensive industry, we have made provision to support any additional costs incurred by carbon-reduction policies; we have the industrial strategy challenge fund; we are reviewing business rates; and we were instrumental in securing antidumping measures through the EU. Also, wherever possible, across government we attempt to buy British when it comes to steel.

Defence Contracts: British Steel

Lord Brookman Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, along with the rest of the Government, the MoD is fully committed to supporting the British steel industry. Most defence steel requirements are sourced by our prime contractors; in fact, the British steel industry has proved very successful in those competitions. We are taking specific action across government. We are compensating energy-intensive manufacturers such as steel for the costs associated with renewables and climate change policy, worth £126 million to them. We secured flexibility over EU emissions regulations. We have made sure that social and economic factors can be taken into account when the Government procure steel. We have also successfully pressed for the introduction of trade defence instruments to protect UK steel producers from unfair steel dumping. There is a range of measures that we believe will help our industry compete even more effectively.

[Lord Brookman (Lab)]

My Lords, I am rather surprised by the Minister’s response to the question posed by my noble friend Lord Hoyle. It is a serious situation; it is not as simple as the Minister describes. Only last week, or the week before, the general secretary of Community, which used to be the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation—a union of which I was a fully paid-up member and still am—wrote to the Prime Minister spelling out in some detail the problems that workers in Port Talbot and elsewhere across the country face. It is not an issue simply of whether the Government are dealing with the British steel industry fairly and properly; consideration needs to be given to making sure that for all the jobs that require steel—construction of the third runway, the Nissan car plant in Sunderland and elsewhere—the necessary support from the British Government is copper-bottom guaranteed.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Lord is right: we have to acknowledge that the steel industry is currently dealing with very challenging global economic conditions. It is a global problem that I would maintain requires a global solution. We set up the Steel Council to work with all key stakeholders to explore actions that industry and government can take further to support the UK steel sector, but our aim is to leave no stone unturned. We have been addressing the asks of industry as I outlined in my earlier reply.