Shipyards: Economic Growth

Irene Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Irene Campbell (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) for securing this debate on this very important topic. In Scotland the ferry fleet is years old and replacements have not been ordered in a timely way, which has caused chaos and difficulties for many of those in island and mainland communities. Now more than ever, we need a robust ferry replacement programme to ensure that our island communities are fully connected to the mainland. This debate provides an opportunity to highlight the importance of a UK shipbuilding industry.

Take my constituency of North Ayrshire and Arran and the impact that the lack of an effective ferry replacement strategy has had on our local communities, especially the island communities. Two state-of-the-art ferries were commissioned by the Scottish SNP Government for routes to the Isle of Arran. However, that was not what the community really needed or wanted. What we actually needed were smaller ferries that fit in the existing port at Ardrossan harbour, not new and expensive ships. We needed ferries that were built locally and which could provide a reliable and much-needed service, rather than the stop-start one we have at the moment. That is due to myriad issues, too many to mention in this debate. One of the new ferries is the one that had the painted windows seven years ago, which I will speak about in a moment.

The ferries were originally commissioned in 2015 and were scheduled to be ready for service in 2018. Glen Sannox has only entered service this year, 2025, and has already been recalled due to faults. Glen Rosa is due to be ready for September 2025—seven years too late for the people of Ardrossan and Arran. Had there been a planned, sustainable order procurement process we would not be in the position we are in Scotland. When planning for future projects, the Scottish Government need to prevent the Ardrossan harbour situation from ever happening again. That should be done through robust and thorough planning.

Ardrossan’s economy has for many years relied on the harbour. The Isle of Arran is becoming isolated, suffering economically from a lack of tourism as sailings have been greatly reduced. Residents suffer as they cannot access essential services on the mainline, such as hospital appointments—so this is serious. We are now in the position where we might lose the port of Ardrossan because a ship has been built that cannot fit in the harbour. That will severely affect the local economy of Ardrossan and Arran and that of the surrounding area.

As we heard earlier, the recent procurement process to build seven new small electric ferries has awarded the contract to a non-UK bidder. It is a real pity to see the local nationalised shipyard Ferguson Marine, which has a track record of building smaller vessels on time and in budget, miss out on new contracts such as this.

I would like to finish by highlighting the importance of shipbuilding to national strategy. UK shipyards play a key role in our defence, as the Royal Navy depends on them for the construction and maintenance of their vessels. Given that we are increasing the defence budget to 2.5%, I think we can all agree that it is time to revisit and reinvigorate this overlooked industry.