Engineering news
A blueprint for the future of the UK’s steel industry has been set out in a new report by a cross-party group of MPs and Leeds University Business School.
The report, Steel 2020, was published by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel and Metal Related industries and is based on testimony collected from industry experts ranging from business leaders, R&D specialists and the workforce, through to the European Commission, international trade body representatives, politicians, and local authorities.
Seven key areas of policy and regulatory reform have been identified in the report: a radical reshaping of the energy market to reduce uncompetitive energy costs, ensuring free and fair international trade by developing a clear UK post-Brexit trade strategy, a positive procurement policy to ensure domestic steel is used as far as possible in public projects, a national review of business rates, supporting supply and value chains within steel and the wider manufacturing sector, the government must take a strategic role in supporting R&D and upskilling of the workforce, while also ensuring support for skills retention, and a more collaborative relationship between industry and the trade unions.
The report was researched and co-authored by Dr Ian Greenwood of Leeds University Business School’s Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change. Greenwood said: “The report from the cross party group of MPs representing steelmaking communities offers a blueprint for how the UK government and the devolved administrations could reshape policy to turn around the fortunes of the steel industry.
"It concludes that steel is a ‘key foundation industry’ crucial to a ‘renaissance for British manufacturing. It is though at risk from ‘a future of perpetual crisis and decline’ if the trading and regulatory environment is not reformed to allow a cutting edge industry to thrive.”
Stephen Kinnock, chair of the Steel 2020 sub-committee of the All Party Parliamentary Group of Steel and Metal Related Industries, added: “If we continue along the current path, characterised by a government whose attitude can best be described as a toxic combination of incompetence and indifference, we will see the further decline of the industry and our communities.
"However, as this report shows, another path is possible and achievable. With strategic action from government and the industry we can build a better future for the British steel industry, we can trigger a modern manufacturing renaissance, we can re-balance the British economy, and we can forge a new, more resilient, kind of growth.”
Kinnock said: “Steel 2020 contains 43 tangible policy recommendations, and we are confident that if the government were to implement them we would see a step-change in the British steel industry's ability to compete on the global stage. But not one of those 43 points is a request for charity, or for special treatment. No, Steel 2020 is merely asking for a level playing field. By building an investment friendly environment the government will allow the UK steel industry to do more than survive, but to thrive. That is why the government must remove the existing disincentives to investment posed by a punitive business rates regime and crippling energy prices. The government must firm up procurement policies to support the British steel industry, support skills development, invest in R&D and build a partnership approach to industrial relations and management.
“Steelworkers and their families and communities have been put through hell, and the difficult times continue. We hope that our report will send a clear message to all those who care as passionately as we do about the future of this proud and vital foundation industry: we will not allow this government to abandon you to your fate; we will fight tooth and nail to close the gap between rhetoric and reality, and we we will not relent until the warm words are converted into practical action.”
“If ministers were to commit to the recommendations in this report they would not only be helping to build a stronger and more resilient steel industry, they would also be helping to build a stronger and more resilient Britain.”
The full report is available here.