Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what role they envisage for British-produced and British-manufactured steel in the Northern Powerhouse.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK steel industry has a key role in generating future economic growth across the country, including the Northern Powerhouse region. The steel sector is a critical element of the supply chain for high technology industries like aerospace, automotive and construction. These all require high value, continually improving steel products in order to remain competitive.
The Government wants to drive up the number of public procurement contracts won by UK steel manufacturers, and have updated procurement rules accordingly. There are more major projects in the pipeline offering opportunities, for example HS2 and Network Rail’s £38bn five-year investment and replacement programme. We have mapped rough estimates of steel that could be needed for major projects including the above: we have shared this with industry and will continue updating them. Steps have also been agreed with industry on how to make better use of the pipelines as they are updated on a six monthly basis.