Select Committee Hearing – Industrial Strategy

Speaking ahead of today’s Business and Trade Select Committee hearing on Industrial Strategy, Community Assistant General Secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said:

“After a long era of neglect under previous Conservative administrations, we now have a Labour government which understands the critical importance of a robust UK industrial strategy, and recognises that the steel sector should be at the heart of that national plan to revitalise our manufacturing base and stimulate economic growth across the country.

“As we highlighted in our recent ‘Steel Reforged’ report, there are huge opportunities for our steel industry over the years ahead, and the sector can and should play a central role in major infrastructure projects – including the mission to rebuild the UK’s defensive capacity – and greening the economy.

“However, we also need to ensure that we have the right policy environment in place to ensure the sector can weather the mounting challenges it faces. That means we need a decisive approach to trade defence and a robust UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to be brought in swiftly in line with the EU to protect the country against a flood of dirty steel imports. It also means we need government action to mandate or incentivise the use of UK-made steel for energy, defence and related infrastructure projects.

“Crucially, we also need to see meaningful action to reduce the unaffordable energy prices which have been such a damaging burden on our steel producers: it simply can’t be right that UK steelmakers continue to pay around 50% more for their energy than leading EU competitors. It’s an unsustainable situation, and it represents a real threat to jobs and the steel communities they support.

“Community looks forward to contributing towards the industrial strategy – as well as the related upcoming steel strategy – and ensuring that we build an economy which works for our members.”

You can read our ‘Steel Reforged’ report here.