Bolton West MP Chris Green has raised concerns about energy costs for steel and manufacturing industries in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
Watson Steel, the engineering firm behind the London Olympic stadium, have a site in Lostock in the Bolton West constituency.
Chris asked the Prime Minister:
“I have a steel producer at the heart of my constituency and so share concerns raised about the future of our steel industry and more widely of energy intensive manufacturing.
“The North of England still has significant manufacturing, but it is being held back by green taxes, high energy costs and emissions targets.
“What more can my Rt. Hon. Friend do to help energy intensive industries?
The Prime Minister responded:
“I think my Hon Friend raises an important point and the changes we are making are going to save the steel industry over £400 million by the end of this Parliament and that is a good example of the steps we can take.
“There was an excellent debate yesterday in the House about this issue. We need to work on everything we can do in terms of procurement, we need to make sure that we’re taking action in the EU against dumping and we are, we need to make sure we reduce the energy costs where we can and we stand by to work with any potential purchaser of the Port Tablot works which will safeguard steel jobs in other parts of the country to see how we can help on a commercial basis.
“I’m absolutely satisfied we are doing everything that we possibly can.
“We cannot totally buck the global trend of this massive over-capacity of steel, massive decline in prices, but those are the key areas in terms of power, in terms of plant, in terms of procurement. All areas where we can help.”