UK Steel Industry

Kevin Foster Excerpts

Monday 29th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Marion Fellows]

I absolutely agree. The former Ravenscraig site is in the centre of my constituency, and I go through it almost weekly. It is still scarred, and it is still a monument to what happens when steel businesses close down.

Each time there have been job losses in the steel industry, the Government have moved in to help. The help has been to find people other employment; there have been few timely direct measures to help keep steel plants open. The UK Government have been challenged numerous times to come up with a UK manufacturing strategy and to employ joined-up thinking to help foundation industries, including steel. That is what other European countries do.

The comparison between what the Scottish Government and the UK Government have done is stark. Within days of the announcement of the mothballing of the Scottish plants, the Scottish Government set up a Scottish steel taskforce, with a remit to find a buyer for the plants and to do everything possible to retrain and upskill the workforce to make sure they would be ready when a buyer was found. Skills Development Scotland has created the steel industry advanced manufacturing upskilling programme to provide an incentive to retain key and essential staff. That will enable a knowledgeable and skilled team to be assembled quickly when an alternative operator is found.

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is going through the work that the devolved Administrations can do. Does she share my disappointment, however, that from the decks of the 94% British steel-built Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers can be seen a bridge that the Scottish Government are building with foreign steel?

[Marion Fellows]

May I ask the hon. Gentleman to excuse me if I move on? That old canard has been dealt with in previous debates on steel. The Scottish Government are now moving on. [Interruption.] I will move on with my speech, if the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise will stop chuntering from a sedentary position—I think I have that wording correct.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy laid the snappily titled statutory instrument 2016 No. 120, Rating and Valuation, the Non-Domestic Rates (Steel Sites) (Scotland) Regulations 2016, on 24 February, and they will come into force on 1 April and grant rates relief to a new operator taking over Scottish plants.

There have also been discussions with the chief assessor in relation to the 2017 revaluation of rates in Scotland, to look at special measures for steel plants. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has been in touch with the present owners regarding any work that needs to be done in relation to the sites, and Tata has been working closely with Scottish Enterprise to find schemes and other ways to reduce running costs, which will also help any new owner. At each meeting of the taskforce, there is a positive energy and a commitment to retaining the plants for Scotland’s economic future.

On 15 February, the Scottish Government launched their paper, “A Manufacturing Future for Scotland”, which lays out their vision for the Scottish manufacturing sector. I recommend it; it is a great read. It is a positive, forward-looking document that shows the Scottish Government’s commitment to manufacturing. It states:

“The Action Plan is based on a commitment to raising productivity through increased investment and innovation”.

It is a road map to success for Scottish industry. As part of the action plan, the Scottish Government have established a joint centre of excellence for manufacturing and skills academy.

The Scottish Government have shown what is severely lacking here at Westminster: a strong political will to help the steel sector and other manufacturing industries boost inclusive growth and exports. The UK Government are so busy with their hands-off approach to vital foundation industries that their mantra of the UK being a world player is at serious risk. This is a country that wants to strut the world stage, but if it is not careful, it will lag so far behind in manufacturing that it will not be able to manufacture the necessities its citizens need.

I ask the Government to look seriously at the mixed messages they are sending out, to get behind the scrapping of the lesser duty rule, to steer away from giving China market economy status and to start investing in foundation industries in the UK. We need to spend more on industry and less on bailing out bankers. In closing, may I just say that another Radio 4 comedy programme comes to mind when I think of the Government’s policies on steel and manufacturing? It is my favourite programme.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

How do you follow that? What I would say is that in describing as a “dinosaur” something that would be Britain’s biggest single construction project and would create 25,000 jobs west of Bristol, it comes as no surprise to me that one party is in danger of becoming extinct in the whole of the south-west peninsula.

Why have I, as the MP for Torbay, which has no direct steel links, come along to this debate? It is because the issues raised in this debate impact on us all. I look at some of the firms starting to expand around Torquay, exporting high-tech, high-quality manufactured products, and realise that if China started to move into those markets as it modernises its economy, we could be debating those types of products in a few years’ time and seeing what China might do.

I am interested in the impacts of what we are talking about on the ground. Some concepts can sound rather odd—the idea of a “lesser duty rule”, for example, and the impact it might or might not have in this area. There is a debate to be had about how the European Union can modernise some of its trade defence practices, so that where issues such as this come up, they can be responded to more quickly.

Given the numbers provided by the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright), it is clear why it is so important that we work as part of 28 states. In view of the sheer scale of China and what it is doing, if we were trying to operate as 28 separate individual states, we would face the danger of each of us being picked off individually, as happened in the 1930s. That would be most worrying for us. It will therefore come as no great surprise to hear that I am one of the remain voters among Conservative Members, and I view it as absolutely right to bring a united front to this issue. We should bear it in mind, however, that not so long ago the European Union was busy dumping surplus agricultural products into the markets of, for instance, African countries. When we request other countries not to dump into our markets, we must also ensure that we in the European Union practise what we preach, and do not inflict on other countries what we are complaining about in relation to some of our own industries. I accept that the lesser duty rule is not making a direct impact in this instance. I am talking about the principle of how the correct tariffs are created and decided, on the basis of advice from industry.

The Government should also think about the way in which our procurement works. I was interested by the response to my intervention on the speech of the hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows), but I think it is worth pointing out that from the decks of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers in Rosyth, 94% of which were constructed with British steel, it is possible to see a major construction project that is being built with steel from elsewhere in the world.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

rose—

[Kevin Foster]

Let us hear the defence. I will happily give way to the hon. Lady.

[Hannah Bardell]

At the beginning of the hon. Gentleman’s speech, he asked what he was doing here. Perhaps his purpose was to be the proponent of misinformation. I can confirm to him that during the procurement process to secure fabricated steel for the new Forth crossing, no company from Scotland, or from the United Kingdom as a whole, made a bid for the contract. A further subcontract for steel fabrication was awarded to Cleveland Bridge in Darlington, and raw steel was supplied by Tata in both Scunthorpe and Motherwell. I hope that that clarifies the position, and that the hon. Gentleman now stands corrected.

[Kevin Foster]

It was interesting to hear those comments, which sounded very similar to the comments from the Government that the hon. Lady has been attacking.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

The hon. Gentleman has been making some interesting points. However, I believe that the contract for the bridge was originally given to a Spanish firm, which had to pull out. Cleveland Bridge came back in, and made sure that the contract used Tata steel from Motherwell and Dalzell. Those two plants are on the verge of closure, but they also make the sonar-specific plate that will be used for the renewal of the four Trident submarines. The contract is integral to both sites.

[Kevin Foster]

What the hon. Gentleman has said proves yet again that there is not just a massive security argument in favour of building the four Successor submarines, but a considerable economic justification. In south Devon, I can look at the site in Plymouth where the submarines are being refitted. [Interruption.] It is always lovely to have an accompaniment from the Opposition Benches. I hear it regularly, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

The hon. Gentleman’s intervention has made clear why it is so vital to build those submarines. I look forward to his joining me in the Lobby when we vote on the issue, although we know that the people whose jobs rely on the Trident contract can expect absolutely no support from the Scottish National party.

We can do a great deal more when it comes to procurement. The Hinkley Point project, for instance, will create a huge number of jobs in the south-west. We need to create an infrastructure that will meet the demand. I hope that a significant amount of British steel will also be used in the construction of the Stonehenge road tunnel.

It has been interesting to take part in the debate, and to listen to some of the comments that have been made. I find it particularly interesting to hear demands for unilateral action from those who, like me, argue for us to remain in the European Union. Membership of the EU has many advantages, but unilateral action on tariffs is not one of them. However, 28 of us, working together, can make more of a difference.

I shall not be supporting the Opposition motion, which will probably not come as a huge surprise, given some of the arguments that we have heard. I think it is right that the Government are playing a proactive role in the European Union to prompt action and to modernise their own procurement rules to ensure that we can defend our own industries, but also to ensure that, for our own projects, we buy as much British steel as we possibly can, respecting the fact that our country would not believe in state aid even if we were committed to it under European rules.

[Several hon. Members rose—]