Adrian Bailey
Main Page: Adrian Bailey (Labour (Co-op) - West Bromwich West)
Sajid Javid
I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the news today about Scunthorpe and Tata long products. That is 4,000 jobs secured, which is obviously hugely welcome news and a vote of confidence in the British steel industry. He asks about the pipeline and procurement and how we can ensure that more of it is British. The changes that we have already made to procurement rules, where economic and social factors can be taken into account, will help to achieve just that. At the same time, with the large industrial infrastructure projects down the line, we can also help by giving steel manufacturers a lot more visibility, and that is exactly what we are looking at through the steel council.
Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)
Business rates on plant and machinery are effectively a tax on investment, and they have comprised a very significant element of the cocktail of costs that have so seriously undermined the steel industry. It was rumoured before the last Budget that plant and machinery would be made exempt. Can the Secretary of State confirm that that was so and explain why it did not happen? Will that be reconsidered in putting together a package for any future buyer of Port Talbot?
Sajid Javid
The hon. Gentleman is right to raise the issue of business rates, because that has come up time and again from the industry, so it is right to look at it. One of the issues is that a change in business rates could be a rather blunt instrument, especially in the steel industry, if we look at the total cost of making that change and at just how little of that would flow down to the industry. There might be better and more focused ways of doing that. Having said that, where there are large steel operations, such as Port Talbot in Wales, there might be something that could be done. As he will know, business rates are devolved, but we are talking about this issue with the Welsh Government.