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Teesside Steel Industry

It is a pleasure to see you presiding over this important debate, Mr. Cook. Had you not been presiding, I am sure you would have joined in the debate, as I know that this subject is close to your heart. First, I thank Mr. Speaker for granting me this debate on what is an important subject for my area—steel is the lifeblood of our economy. Nearly a fortnight ago, Teesside was rocked by the disastrous news about the mothballing of the integrated iron and steel plants of Redcar and Lackenby. That news has destroyed the festive spirit of thousands of families across Teesside. The plants are in constituency of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar (Vera Baird), who is taking a lead on this matter and has been fighting hard. However, many of the job losses are in my constituency. I was once one of the many thousands of people who worked at that plant. As a young graduate engineer, I worked on bringing the Redcar blast furnace—the biggest blast furnace in western Europe—online in 1978-79. I worked on that furnace for eight months, and many years later I remember my many trials and experiences with it. Therefore, I have a deep, emotional attachment to this matter. I shall talk generally about the steel industry on Teesside, including the importance of research and development. Then I shall say a few words about the steel industry in my own constituency, in particular the Skinningrove works. Then I shall raise the big issue that I mentioned earlier—the mothballing of the integrated plants in Redcar and Lackenby. The importance of the manufacturing industry for our economy has been underestimated. We cannot survive as a nation on an economy that seems to range from pizza parlours to DVDs or sportswear retail warehousing. Manufacturing accounted for more than 20 per cent. of the economy in 1997 when Labour came to power and criticised the country for having too narrow an industrial base. However, by 2007, that share had declined to 12.4 per cent. Why is manufacturing important? Quite simply, it acts as a multiplier across all boundaries of the economy. It encourages the development of human skills, and the development of an infrastructure to support those skills. It also encourages research and development and the spread of innovation. I will say a few words about steelmaking on Teesside. Steelmaking has been central to our economy since the mid-Victorian age, and has evolved over the decades to the position that it is now in. The main works line the River Tees and the core of those works is found in the Teesside Cast Products iron and steelmaking complex, whose mothballing has been announced. At Grangetown, we have a fully functioning and impressive steel technology centre. That centre has an international reputation with an outstanding pilot plan, and many brilliant metallurgists, engineers, technologists and scientists work there. I must declare an interest, as I am a former employee of the research centre, and I had 14 happy years working there. Some of the work that I undertook at the Teesside technology centre was connected with the completion of what was then the British Steel Redcar works, and the commissioning of the new blast furnace. At that time, the furnace was considered the biggest in the UK; I seem to recall that it was the biggest in Europe. The furnace in Redcar was a great British achievement. It was to make iron for feeding to the Lackenby basic oxygen steel plant, and the associated continuous casting plant. Both were then state-of-the-art steelmaking and processing plants and, due to regular upgrading, they are still world-class plants today. They deserve more than merely being consigned to the scrap heap of past manufacturing glories, left to be of interest only to the industrial archaeologists of the future.