Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his strategy is for maximising the economic contribution of (a) the steel industry and (b) other industries vital to the UK’s economic success.
Anna Soubry
The best way the Government can support our industries is to continue to deliver a strong and growing economy.
In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced an exemption for Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs), including the steel industry, from the policy costs of the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs, a hugely significant step to provide industry with long-term certainty and helping them remain competitive. This is on top of the millions that has already been paid in compensation to EIIs for energy costs.
The Government engages with various industrial sectors through our Sector Councils, where we discuss the opportunities and challenges facing certain sectors.
The Government recognises the current difficulties that are unique to the steel sector. While we cannot fix the price of steel, halt global overproduction or fix currency rates, the Government has taken a number of measures to help our steel industry.
We have taken action on unfair trade, recently voting in support of anti-dumping measures on wire rod and steel tubing imports, as well as lobbying successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar.
The steel industry’s request for flexibility over Industrial Emissions Directive exemptions has been secured. This will save the industry millions of pounds of unnecessary expenditure at a time of crisis by offering steel companies more time to comply with this European legislation.
Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major Government projects.
