David T C Davies
Main Page: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)Department Debates - View all David T C Davies's debates with the Department for Education
(8 years, 9 months ago)
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Sajid Javid
We are the first country in the EU to take advantage of new procurement rules. When it comes to defence needs and other infrastructure projects, we should use British steel whenever we can. For example, the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are 94% British steel—that is 77,000 tonnes. Last week I visited Crossrail, the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, and almost all of it is British steel.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
22. Under current rules, steel companies pay the highest energy taxes in Europe. Those taxes are then used to subsidise wind farms, which are made from cheap imported steel. Does the Minister agree that our policy needs to change?
Sajid Javid
I agree about the importance of energy costs, and that is an issue that the steel industry has raised time and again. We had previously announced a system of compensating for part of the cost, but we went further after listening to the industry. We needed to make a change, and we have made a change, which is a full exemption.