Future of Rail Manufacturing

Debate between Paul Howell and Kevan Jones

Tuesday 23rd April 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

May I say what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Gary?

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) on securing this very important debate. He and the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell) said that the north-east has a long tradition in rail manufacturing, and it is one we should be proud of, but it also has a future. It had a future when we secured the investment in the Hitachi factory in Newton Aycliffe, which supported not only 700 highly paid jobs but the supply chain. People should remember the history of how we got Hitachi in the north-east. I pay tribute to Durham County Council; the NDA, which the coalition Government abolished, and Phil Wilson, who was the MP for Sedgefield and a great champion of getting that investment.

Why did Hitachi come to Newton Aycliffe? It saw opportunities in the tradition, but also the opportunities in the workforce. It came there because it saw the growth in the UK market, as well as in exports to Europe. Well, Brexit has dealt a hammer blow to that, but Hitachi was still determined to contribute to the development of the UK rail industry. Remember that the Japanese do not take short-term decisions; they take long-term investment decisions. They invested because they saw a pathway of work in the UK.

The hon. Member for Sedgefield talked about the challenge and about not making the issue political. Well, I am sorry, but this is a political decision. As he said, it is about ensuring that we have a rail strategy, and that is about UK factories, including Newton Aycliffe, having consistent orders. The answer is in the Government’s hands. He is a member of the governing party, and he cannot say that there is no solution. There is. The solution is ensuring that there is a drumbeat of orders, not just for Newton Aycliffe but for the rest of UK rail manufacturing, so that we get long-term supply chains in place and retain skills.

Hitachi quite clearly has a gap coming up for two years before HS2 comes on stream. I am sorry to tell the hon. Member, but we cannot treat the skills that have been developed at Newton Aycliffe like a tap, turning them on when we want them and turning them off when we do not. We have to invest in them and keep them there. Those people’s livelihoods are important. If the next generation of rail workers are to come through, we need the investment and the certainty that those young people will have a future, not just necessarily at Hitachi but in the wider rail industry.

[Paul Howell]

I will probably surprise the right hon. Member by agreeing with him. The way in which the Japanese and Hitachi work is all about generational levels of training, investment and continuity. I endorse his point about the need for skills to be invested in and continued over long periods of time.

[Mr Jones]

I agree with the hon. Member, so why does he not criticise his own Government, who are not investing in the long-term strategy we need? We have had it in the shipbuilding industry and we have a shipbuilding strategy that makes that exact point: we need a drumbeat of orders. That the Government decide to put warships over to Spanish and not UK yards makes a mockery of their commitment to such long-term strategies.

If we are serious about levelling up, this is it in action. Levelling up is nothing new; the last Labour Government saw the need for it. It was the reason why we were involved in the NDA and why we attracted Hitachi to the north-east. I must say that it takes a lot, having dealt with Japanese politicians and industry for a number of years, for them to make the public statements they have made about the future of Newton Aycliffe. It is in the Government’s hands to ensure that we have the continuation of skills. Without that, it has a bleak future.

I pay huge tribute to the management and staff at Newton Aycliffe. With my hon. Friend the Member for Easington, I met representatives of Unite the union the other day and they are fully committed to the future of the plant. They are the people who want to ensure that not only they but future generations have jobs. The answer to Newton Aycliffe’s future is in the hands of the Government, who can make sure that in the next few years we have a continuous stream of orders going through, but this is not just an issue for Newton Aycliffe; other plants face it as well. It comes down to the sad fact that for the last 14 years of Conservative Government, there has been a lack of industrial strategy across the UK. This is a good example not only of how that lack of strategy will endanger our great jobs in Newton Aycliffe but of how hollow all the nonsense spoken about levelling up over the last few years has been.