The Secretary of State for Wales (Alun
Cairns):...Our Advanced Propulsion Centre has
awarded grants worth more than £800 million to more than 150
organisations across the UK. Just last month, the Under-Secretary
of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my hon.
Friend the Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson), announced a
further £28 million of support to further enhance our UK Battery
Industrialisation Centre, giving investment of more than £100
million in a world-leading facility to enable industry and academia
to put the UK at the forefront of bringing battery technologies
from the lab into the next generation of vehicles to drive on our
streets. Working with industry, £80 million of investment through
our driving the electric revolution programme will see support for
innovation in electric motor technologies...
(Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
(SNP):...I understand why the Secretary of State gave
assurances about the other Ford plant operations across the UK, but
how robust are those assurances? Padding out his statement by
mentioning a £28 million investment in Coventry, £800 million in
UK-wide grants from the Advanced Propulsion Centre and £80
million for the electric revolution programme is of absolutely no
comfort to the Bridgend workers. What we need to hear is that the
right actions are being taken now, not
platitudes...
(Newport East)
(Lab): Ford’s announcement is indeed a bitter blow for
workers at Bridgend and will be felt across south Wales, and all
our efforts should be put into supporting those who are affected.
With the car industry in crisis, the steelworkers I met on Friday
at Cogent, owned by Tata, want the Government to be proactive in
helping to develop and support the supply chain for electric
vehicles. Companies like Orb have the workforce and the
expertise, but what will the Government do to support such
companies through the industrial strategy for the future of this
industry?
: The hon. Lady
highlights the £1.1 billion that has been made available through
a range of schemes, including the Faraday challenge, the
Stephenson challenge, the autonomous vehicle initiative and the
Advanced Propulsion Centre. These schemes are available to
companies across the whole UK, and many Welsh organisations are
making active use of them.
(Gower) (Lab): A
constituent of mine, like many other workers, has been back to
the plant today and took the time to message me. He says that
Ford is telling the workers that the plant is no longer viable.
This is a bitter pill to swallow because the UK has been one of
Ford’s best markets throughout the years. The employees feel that
the plant has been manipulated by Ford into no longer being
viable.
I have two questions for the Secretary of State. In a potential
post-Brexit United Kingdom, where will the 1,700 jobs in south
Wales—plus the impact on the supply chain—come from? Moreover,
will he explain why he believes that the right hon. Member for
Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) will be the saviour of
the future prosperity and wellbeing of the people of Wales? I and
many of my colleagues believe that actions speak louder than
words, and the only words I have heard from the Secretary of
State today are potential, not action.
: The hon. Lady asks
where the jobs will come from, which is a reasonable and fair
question. We work closely with the unions and the Welsh
Government in seeking to exploit every opportunity to attract
investment to the site, be it from Ford or from any other
manufacturer or organisation. The UK’s industrial strategy
clearly sets out ambitions for the UK to become a leader in the
next generation of automotive. The Advanced Propulsion Centre,
the Stephenson challenge and the Faraday challenge, from which
Welsh companies are already significantly benefiting, highlight
why we have seen such a sharp uplift in investment in the sector
for the latest full-year statistics that are available, and for
the opportunities that come thereafter.
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