Tristram Hunt
Main Page: Tristram Hunt (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent Central)Department Debates - View all Tristram Hunt's debates with the Department for Education
(11 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberA comprehensive strategy is about ensuring that we support women as well as men who want to do apprenticeships, and that is exactly what we are doing.
7. What recent assessment he has made of manufacturing activity and future capacity in that sector.
8. What recent assessment he has made of manufacturing activity and future capacity in that sector.
After years of manufacturing being in relative decline we are seeking to bolster manufacturing capacity and drive the transformation to a skilled economy. On Monday we launched an aerospace strategy with £2 billion Government-industry funding for an aerospace technology institute. Rounds 2 and 3 of the advanced manufacturing supply chain initiative opened for applications today.
One of the major problems affecting ceramics manufacturing in my constituency is, after yesterday’s Budget, no longer the climate change levy, but is security of supply when it comes to gas. We have dangerously low levels of gas storage capacity in this country, and in recent weeks we have come close to energy cut-outs. Will the right hon. Gentleman meet the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change as a matter of urgency so that we can have proper energy security for our ceramics industry?
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman and his fellow potteries MPs on putting ceramics on the agenda. We recognise that because ceramics institutions are driven by gas rather than electricity it is more difficult to compensate them under the Government’s scheme. He is right to raise the issue of gas storage, which goes back many years. Compared with France we have relatively little strategic storage and I would be happy to talk to the Energy Secretary about that.