Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy

Greg Clark Excerpts

Monday 1st March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy if he will make a statement on the future of car manufacturing by Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and the Government’s strategy for battery manufacturing.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kwasi Kwarteng)]

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for the great work he did as Secretary of State. He was the first Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and I think that we can all say that we appreciate the outstanding work he did at that time.

The Government are absolutely committed to ensuring the future of manufacturing at Ellesmere Port and to secure the jobs and livelihoods of the workers at the plant. Since I was appointed Business Secretary last month, I have held a number of meetings with both Vauxhall and its new parent company, Stellantis, to support the company to make a positive investment decision. Only last week, I also held a constructive meeting with the general secretary of Unite, Mr Len McCluskey. Over the coming days and weeks, I, fellow Ministers and officials at BEIS will continue this intensive dialogue with the company.

More widely, the Government are continuing their long-standing programme of support to keep the British automotive sector at the forefront of technology and maintain its competitiveness, building on the work that my right hon. Friend did through the automotive sector deal.

It is my priority as Business Secretary to ensure that the UK continues to enjoy the benefits from our transition to ultra low and zero emission vehicles by continuing to build an agile, innovative and cost-competitive supply chain, which we need to secure vital international investment. With that in mind, we remain dedicated and absolutely committed to securing UK battery manufacturing. As part of the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan, we have already announced £500 million to support the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains, and other strategically important technologies, through the automotive transformation fund over the next four years. We continue to work with investors through the automotive transformation fund, and to progress plans for manufacturing the batteries that we will need for the next generation of electric vehicles here in the UK.

The Government and industry have jointly committed almost £1.5 billion through the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Faraday battery challenge to support the research, development and manufacture of zero and low emission technologies. Between 2013 and 2020, the Advanced Propulsion Centre has funded 67 collaborative R&D projects, creating and safeguarding nearly 47,000 jobs, with projected CO₂ savings of 244 million tonnes.

I repeat: we are 100% committed to making sure that the UK continues to be one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing, and we are doing all we can to protect and create jobs while securing a competitive future for the sector here in the UK in particular, including at Ellesmere Port.

--- Later in debate ---

[Greg Clark]

I bring it to the House’s attention that I am a vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary motor group and the chemical industry all-party parliamentary group.

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his response to my urgent question and for his kind words. The industrial strategy made a number of commitments. One was to make Britain a home for vaccine development and to build vaccine manufacturing capability. Another was to make Britain a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, including the batteries that power them. I mention them both not to claim special prescience, but rather the opposite; both are obviously required if our industrial strengths are to continue in the future.

In the case of electric vehicles, there are three important facts. First, we have one of the most important, diverse and efficient car industries in the world, employing over 800,000 people in all parts of Britain. Secondly, by 2030 no new car will be sold in Britain with simply a petrol or a diesel engine. Thirdly, unless the batteries for vehicles made in the UK are manufactured in Britain within five years, the cars that they power will no longer be able to be exported tariff-free to the EU. We therefore urgently need to install the manufacturing capacity in the UK. That means not just one gigafactory, but many. It all needs to be planned, built and operating at scale within five years.

In the case of Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port, as the Secretary of State says, a decision is imminent as to whether a new electric model will be built there. The same is true of Jaguar Land Rover in the west midlands and supply chain companies such as GKN. A laissez-faire approach will not do it, and neither will just general encouragement. It requires sleeves-rolled-up concrete action to be taken now between Government and industry, just as was the case with vaccines. Will the Secretary of State, for whom I have a high regard, make this commitment today and do whatever it takes urgently to ensure that Britain is a global force in manufacturing electric vehicles long into the future?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend is quite right. The issues raised by his question are of critical strategic importance, and I fully appreciate the work that he did on driving the industrial strategy. As he pointed out, the industrial strategy set the foundation for vaccines and the success of the vaccine roll-out. He is quite right to point out that we need the same rigour and focus in ensuring that the United Kingdom continues to be an attractive place in which to invest for the manufacture of electric vehicles, in order to meet the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan. Electric vehicles were a key part of that 10-point plan.