Prospect concern at lack of government support for UK shipbuilding

The failure of the government to deliver on promises to revive shipbuilding in Portsmouth is the latest setback for a beleaguered industry.

In November 2014 the coalition government announced the end of naval shipbuilding in Portsmouth and the prime minister, David Cameron, pledged to bring replacement work to the city’s naval base. Indeed, he claimed that shipbuilding would return to the city in order to utilise a £400million facility that had only been in place since 2003. Then, during the course of the 2015 election campaign it was announced that Magma Structures, a company specialising in the development and production of composite vessels, would be moving into Portsmouth Naval Base and would seek to significantly grow their business in this location.

Since that announcement there had been little indication that Magma were ready to move into the base. Unfortunately, it has now been confirmed that Magma will not be moving to Portsmouth and a large part of the old shipbuilding site will remain moribund. Furthermore, there appears little prospect of other businesses being attracted to the base and little chance of replacement jobs for the 1500 that were lost when shipbuilding ended in the city.

There are also growing concerns over the failure of the government to confirm the start and extent of the programme to build the next generation warship, Type-26. An initial plan to build 13 Type-26’s, to a drumbeat of one-a-year has already been abandoned. Just over a year ago George Osborne announced that Type-26 would be built on a biannual basis with the initial order scaled down to eight. This has resulted in the cancellation of a £400million plan to build a ‘frigate factory’ on the Clyde and potentially has big implications for workflow and jobs in Scotland. Moreover, the delay also has implications in terms of the effectiveness of the Type-23 frigates that were going to be replaced over a 13 year period. Indeed, the delay in replacing the Type-23s could have an impact not only in budgetary terms, given the increased maintenance costs, but also in the operational effectiveness of the Royal Navy.