UK Maritime Industry

Debate between Albert Owen and John Hayes

Thursday 12th January 2017 Westminster Hall

[Mr Hayes]

Yes, that is a very well made point. The hon. Lady is right to say that we perhaps understated the significance of the maritime sector. This is a point that the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for maritime and ports and former Shipping Minister, the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse, made in his contribution and has made previously. Part of the role of the Shipping Minister is to champion the sector; to speak loudly and repeatedly about its significance. The hon. Lady is right that it does not just affect the places where our ports are situated; it affects the whole of our economy. Some 95% of the goods that we purchase from abroad, and the things that we send to foreign countries, go through our ports. As the representative for Grimsby, she will know how important that is.

[Albert Owen]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Hayes]

I will give way in a second. By the way, I am going to visit Grimsby soon and will have a look at the port. Now I will give way to another of my favourites.

[Albert Owen]

I was a bit disappointed that I was not listed among the Minister’s friends earlier on. There is a serious point that I want him to answer. Now that we have talk of an industrial strategy, will the Minister, who is in the Department for Transport, liaise with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ensure that both Departments know about this so that we have joined-up thinking when we talk about ports being the catalyst?

[Mr Hayes]

We are already doing that, but these debates must have a purpose, so I reassure the hon. Gentleman that I will personally meet Ministers on exactly the issue he has raised, and in the fashion that he has described. It is important that the industrial strategy takes full account of the significance of the maritime sector, as has been said. As he spoke earlier I thought to myself for a moment, given our great history, that he has forgotten more about energy than I have ever known, but then I thought, as a former Energy Minister, that was a tad too self-deprecating.

Let me highlight the key issues that have been raised, which fall into the following categories. First, there is the maritime growth study, which I have mentioned. That was a very important piece of work and I am immensely grateful to Lord Mountevans for leading it and to others who took part. It provided a series of recommendations that will inform future policy, but as he and others acknowledged, it must be a living document. The great risk with such exercises is that the document is published, the work is done, there is a great furore around its publication and then a year later people think, “What on earth was that study?” In order to give the document continuing relevance, it needs to be regularly updated, which is precisely what I am doing through the work I just described.

The points made about the flag—as highlighted by the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass)—and tonnage tax should be pertinent to that review of the study. We can do more with tonnage tax, particularly on recruitment and training, and we need to do more, as has been acknowledged by the Government and those with whom we work, to make the flag more attractive. There has to be an offer in respect of the register that goes beyond simply raising the flag and includes a range of services that we can provide to make it more attractive. We are committed to that.

Secondly, the issue of ports was raised. We may have emphasised ports insufficiently. At the risk of adding contumely to our affairs, I disagreed to some degree with the Opposition spokesman on this issue; the ports are perhaps the best example of how private organisations investing heavily, being responsive to changing circumstances and being very efficient and competitive, compared with their European counterparts, can make a significant difference to the sector. The fact that we have private organisations—not wholly, but for the most part—running our ports is testament to what can be done when private and public interests coincide.

However, we should not be complacent. The shadow Minister is right that we need to look at the new challenges that our ports face, because they work in an extremely dynamic sector and more can be done to support them. We certainly should not have the port services regulation. As I made perfectly clear to my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight, we will not have it as we do not want it and will fight it at every opportunity.

The third issue that was raised was skills and recruitment. I share almost all the views that permeated—indeed coloured—this debate, begun by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland. I think that we are doing too little on recruitment and that we need to do more on skills. As Members will know, I was the apprenticeships Minister when the coalition Government first came into office. I am proud of our work on revitalising apprenticeships, but I take the point that was made. More can be done, and in my discussions on the industrial strategy I will raise the continuing importance of training in this sector. We need to recruit and train more British seafarers. It is as simple as that. Throughout this short debate Members have made the point that there has to be a career path for those seafarers. It is not enough simply to recruit people at different levels; there has to be a career path so that people can build their life in seafaring. That is a good thing and something of which we should be proud.

[Albert Owen]

The Minister made two interventions on earlier speakers, and I am really pleased that he has now taken two interventions from me. Sea cadet units across the United Kingdom were a fertile breeding ground for people for both the merchant navy and the Royal Navy. Will he do more to train youngsters up in those facilities? He will also be aware of early-day motion 516, which has been suggested by the unions. Will he work with the unions and others to ensure that we have a proper campaign for skills and safety at sea?

[Mr Hayes]

Indeed I will. I recently held a roundtable meeting, which the unions attended, on precisely those matters. I have discussed recruitment with the trade unions, and I welcome the excellent briefing produced by my trade union friends. When I first became a Minister, I said to my officials, “I want to meet the unions regularly,” and they looked slightly nervous about it. During the course of those meetings, a union representative—I will not say who—said, “We never got this much out of Labour.” I can assure the hon. Gentleman—and particularly the hon. Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins), who called for this specifically in his contribution—that I will continue to work with the trade unions in exactly the way in which he has described. It is vital not only that we recruit people, but that we train them appropriately and allow them the kind of career opportunities that he called for.

Offshore Wind Generation (North Wales)

Debate between Albert Owen and John Hayes

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Westminster Hall

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Mr John Hayes)]

I thank the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen) for drawing the House’s attention to this important matter and for securing the debate. His advocacy of the interests of his constituency is a model of good representation. When I entered the Chamber today and saw the array of his Welsh colleagues, I reflected for a moment on what the collective noun for a group of Welsh people is. I thought perhaps a “choir”, a “valley”, or a “Barry John”, but then, given my experience of Wales, I decided that it would be a “charm” of Welsh Members.

I will attempt to respond to the points raised in the short time available to me. The hon. Gentleman began by highlighting four points. He talked about the need for a viable energy mix, and he is right that to maintain energy security and build resilience into the system, we need a mixed range of energy generation. Renewables are an important part of that mix. He mentioned clarity— a point reflected by the hon. Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith)—and certainty. The Energy Bill will provide precisely that.

If I were a more partisan man, I might say that the Energy Bill should have passed through the House long ago, because we have known for a long time that we need extra resources and to replace the generating resource. Indecision has characterised policy in the past, but let us put that to one side. We now have the chance for a Bill that provides just that clarity and certainty, and just the platform for investment that produces the kind of mixed array of energy generation sought by the hon. Member for Ynys Môn. He also spoke about skills, which are critical.

[Albert Owen]

I am grateful to the Minister for trying to charm Welsh Opposition Members. He mentioned the Energy Bill. I agree that for many decades there should have been greater investment in our infrastructure and that the dash for gas in the ’80s and ’90s was wrong. We are now back to square one, because the gas has run out. Will the Minister clearly tell the House when he expects the Bill to be laid before Parliament, and when we can start debating these issues? It is already a year and a half late, as the Government first announced it 18 months ago.

[Mr Hayes]

I expect it to be laid before Parliament next month, but it would be wrong for me to pitch above my pay grade. The Leader of the House will have a view about the parliamentary timetable, which will of course be agreed through the usual channels.

None the less, we anticipate that the Bill will be laid next month. I hope that we can get on with the business of scrutinising it carefully, ensuring that it is fit for purpose and that we have a largely consensual strategy based on a shared understanding of energy needs and a determination to develop a long-term view about what our energy future should look like. I do not think that there is much difference between the parties in the Chamber today about the fundamentals, but let me highlight some of the areas that need greater clarification—the sort of clarification that the hon. Member for Ynys Môn sought in his opening remarks. Before I do so, however, I want to deal with his point about skills.

The hon. Gentleman talked about the importance of skills in this mix, and he knows—indeed, he mentioned it—that the higher education and further education sectors, in Wales and elsewhere, are playing a key role in providing the skills that are necessary, particularly in the emerging technologies, to make the aim a reality and to provide the jobs that are desirable and the competences necessary to bring about the future that I describe.

The hon. Gentleman raises those issues against a background of change in his constituency; I am thinking of the closure of Wylfa and the associated closure of Anglesey Aluminium, but also of the great success that his constituency has enjoyed in respect of offshore wind. He makes the very important point that to provide secure, affordable, low-carbon energy resources, we have to face up to some of the challenges associated with the development of the offshore wind industry.

Let me be clear: offshore wind remains an important part of Government policy in meeting the objective of providing the mix that the hon. Gentleman suggested was essential, that we certainly believe is vital and that will be underpinned by the provisions of the Energy Bill. Offshore wind is one source of affordable energy. It provides a free and limitless domestic supply of fuel. We have a great deal of resource because we have shallow seas, consistent winds and an increasingly skilled work force who have experience of working offshore.

The challenge—this point was made by a number of hon. Members—is to ensure that the whole of our kingdom gets the most benefit from the investment. That is about the supply chain, I agree; as a direct result of the contribution from the hon. Member for Llanelli, I will look again at what measures we can put in place to ensure that we get maximum benefit, through the supply chain, from these important developments.

Furthermore, we need to provide absolute certainty for those who want to invest. Investment in this sector, because it is an emerging sector, is inevitably a matter that people will consider very carefully. It is not a long-established sector, with all that that means. The technology is relatively new. The scale necessary to drive down costs is only just beginning to emerge. Therefore, the commitment that the Government make to offshore wind is important in signalling to potential investors that they can consider this option without fear of a policy lurch or change.

That is another reason, by the way, why it is important to develop an energy strategy that is consensual—because, of course, policy can change when there is a change of Government or Minister. Governments do not last for ever, and Ministers sometimes last for even less time, so it is very important that a signal is sent out from the House and through what the Government say and do.

The hon. Member for Ynys Môn talked at length about some of the specific impacts on his constituency, but of course there is a specific impact across the whole of Wales. We have heard a great deal about the Gwynt y Môr wind turbine development, which is currently under construction. It has already helped to generate significant economic opportunities and create new jobs in Wales and more widely.

The port of Mostyn will serve as the operations and maintenance base throughout the life of that development. Turbine Transfers, which is based in Anglesey, as the hon. Gentleman knows, will supply transfer vessels and crew. It has already created, I think, 20 new jobs as a result. DRB Group, which is in the constituency of the hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami), who also contributed to the debate, will provide crane units. Prysmian Cables in Wrexham won an order to provide cables worth some £15 million. Jones Bros of Ruthin won a multi-million pound contract for preparatory groundworks for the building of a substation. A little further south, Mabey Bridge in Chepstow won a contract to provide drill components.

We know that there is a significant supply-chain impact and that that has a real value in terms of jobs and skills, and we should understand the offshore wind industry in that way. This is not simply about the short-term benefits that may arise from a particular development; it is about building an infrastructure, in terms of supply, jobs and skills, that can benefit the whole of Wales and the whole of the kingdom.

Let me say again that we understand that renewables are an important part of that mix and that offshore wind is part of that. However, there are questions to be asked—indeed, they have been asked in this debate by a number of hon. Members, who put their case very well.

Yes, the hon. Member for Ynys Môn is right to say—other hon. Members made this point, too—that costs should fall as scale grows. It is right that we see the support that we give this industry at its beginning as rather different from how it will compete subsequently. That is true across the energy marketplace, by the way. We need to move to a more market-responsive, more competitive energy marketplace, including in the area of renewables.

It is also right, as a number of hon. Members suggested, that community benefit needs to be at the heart of what we do. These things must not be imposed on communities, which must feel a sense of ownership and influence over where they are located. Community benefits need to be considered very seriously. I was delighted that the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) was able to secure such a benefit for his community. He was right to do so. We have a role to play in that as local constituency MPs. As a Government, we will also do what we can, as I have in the call for evidence on onshore wind. That obliges us to reconsider the benefits that communities attain from that kind of development.

Let me say a few words about onshore wind, because my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) and the hon. Member for Clwyd South (Susan Elan Jones) raised that issue. I entirely agree that we must see it as being about aesthetics as well as utility. I regard it as almost extraordinary that people can stare at some monstrous concrete structure and tell me that it is beautiful. These are industrial structures. Placing them insensitively, in areas where there is large-scale and understandable opposition to them, has done immense damage to the debate about renewables. I think that we need to settle the onshore wind argument to get on the front foot and have a more positive debate about renewables—of the kind that we have had today. I think that we need a new paradigm in those terms. E. F. Schumacher, who wrote “Small is Beautiful”, a wonderful book, which I am sure you are familiar with, Sir Alan—

[Albert Owen]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Hayes]

I have only a minute.

[Albert Owen]

I will be brief.

[Mr Hayes]

If the hon. Gentleman is going to talk about Schumacher, fine.

[Albert Owen]

I am extremely grateful to the Minister for giving way, but I did ask the question initially about port development. Will he work with the Welsh Assembly Government and the port authority of Holyhead to maximise the potential of that port? Will he, as a Minister, come and see it—see the potential for himself?

[Mr Hayes]

How could I resist such an invitation?