Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has slated the Conservative Government at Westminster and the Labour Government in Wales for its failures over the steel industry. She says it’s time to put British industry first.
She said that the Conservative Government had allowed the UK steel industry to “shrivel on its watch”, in response to the announcement that councils must now consider UK providers when when carrying out procurement for steel. She also blasted the Labour Government for doing nothing to ensure Welsh steel was used on infrastructure projects.
Once again the UK Government is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. It’s no good asking councils to use UK steel now after letting the industry shrivel on their watch.
Of course councils and the UK Government should always be considering UK steel, but this is just a basic requirement to support our industry. It’s time this Tory Government put British industry first, rather than just kowtowing to the Chinese Government.
Labour’s record is no better. The Labour Government in Wales has completely failed to support Welsh steel. Time and time again Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for an audit of Welsh procurement, yet the Labour Government has done nothing. We called on Labour to publish new guidance when investing in steel, again nothing has happened. For 18 months we’ve called for reduced business rates on heavy machinery, again nothing. People are absolutely fed up of governments that offer warm words, but seem incompetent to realise how serious this crisis is.
Kirsty, and Tim Farron, earlier this week called for the UK Government to intervene to act as a temporary buyer for the Port Talbot plant if necessary.
Wales’ steel industry is of national strategic importance and something we have to protect for the long term. We need a UK Government that is brave enough to make the big decisions. So far, it has been unwilling to do so.
Many of our communities strongly rely on this industry. We must stand up for them, learn lessons from the past, and take strong action now.
People are fed up of hearing just warm words from both Governments over the future of our steel industry. What steel workers and their families need is action. The Liberal Democrats believe the UK Government must be prepared to temporarily renationalise at least part of the plant in order to make sure that it can be passed as a going concern to a new investor and prevent a gap in operation.
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6 Comments
Before the referendum, Unionists used to tell us the Scottish steel industry was only safe within the UK. It turns out that the UK steel industry is only safe within Scotland!
What Scottish steel industry? Largescale steel making, as per Port Talbot, ended in 1992 with the closure of Ravenscraig.
“Wales’ steel industry is of national strategic importance”. Why? When would we be unable to import basic steel but still able to import the coal, iron ore & limestone to make it from?
The elephant in the room is that this is not purely a British problem but a European one. The experience of British steel manufacturing mirrors what happens/ has happened in France, Italy and Luxembourg, at least.
The ultimate predecessor to the EU was the European Coal & Steel Community. Solutions have to be for the whole of Europe.
Chinese steel is apparently being dumped, the term for pricing below what it sells for at home. Sellafield does not allow Chinese steel as it is of very low quality – which presumably might have security issues, but according to the Guardian the government has been the leader in the EU in blocking any attempts to regulate Chinese steel and stop higher tariffs on it. EU tariff is 16%, US 266%.
Osborne likes to boast of his “March of the Makers” but it’s evident that he’s actually presiding over a “March of the Liquidators”.
One thing that strikes me about this sorry saga (and it’s a point I haven’t seen anyone else make) is that this reveals what a really terrible place Britain is to invest in under Cameron & Osborne (and, to be fair, other recent governments). Here we have a major strategic industry, regionally dominant, with severe cost problems which were well known, long-standing and largely the result of dumb policies on business rates and energy.
I worked for years in heavy industry and to succeed it has to be a partnership at some level between private sector companies and the host government. That clearly isn’t the case in Britain to the extent that the government prefers instead to rely on discredited neo-liberal nostrums along the lines of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost’.
Everyone involved knew when this was going to come to a head months in advance yet the Business Minister couldn’t even be bothered to be in the country. Meanwhile, Osborne is prepared to trash the investment we already have in the hope of currying favour with the Chinese for unspecified future investments. What planet do they think they are living on?