THE writing is on the wall. But how high do the letters have to be before this Government notices? It’s a shame there isn’t a blank expanse of brick facing Downing Street because, for once in my life, I would condone a hoodie with a spray can. “Britain’s car industry is facing oblivion.”
I know, not very sexy, not very graffiti. Perhaps Banksy could do better. Here’s hoping because something must get through. Search me if I know what it is.
In the absence of graphic street art, ministers have stacks of press cuttings and their own “intel” to fall back upon. Clearly, though, they’re not enough, since there is precious evidence of anything being done.
“Ford is cutting one in five jobs in Britain”, “UK car production collapses to lowest for 66 years”, “Nissan warns costs must fall to make cars in the UK”, “Britishvolt hopes for last-minute rescue bid” … these are all recent headlines.
The last is especially telling. Britishvolt was planning on building a £3.8 billion factory to make electric vehicle batteries. Some 3000 jobs would be created in Blyth in Northumberland and Britain’s push into electric car and truck manufacturing would receive a major fillip.
Instead, Britishvolt collapsed into administration. An Australian start-up, Recharge Industries, has emerged as the likely buyer.
What provoked frustration and much scratching of heads among industrial chiefs in the Britishvolt debacle was the attitude of the Government. Throughout, it sat on the sidelines, saying what was unfolding was between private businesses, but it was “monitoring the situation”.
There was no sense of wishing to get involved, of rolling up sleeves and determinedly ensuring the safety of a firm that stood for the UK’s motor-making future. This lack of engagement, the absence of a plan and sticking to it, is deeply worrying.
Ever since I can remember, the British automobile industry has been in decline. Somehow though, while other industries have suffered and all but perished, such as shipbuilding and coalmining, motors has clung on. At times there have even been glimpses of promise as a new factory has been built, a new model awarded to a UK plant. Now, however, this feels like the endgame.
Inflation, rising energy bills, soaring costs (Britain is an expensive place in which to invest and certainly in which to set up a manufacturing facility) and isolation from Europe are combining like never before, to ratchet up the pressure on a beleaguered sector. That’s without the onset of competition from all corners of the globe. Everywhere wants to, and can, manufacture motor vehicles — which was not the case previously. They’re cheaper, land is more plentiful, red tape is reduced, the unions are not so belligerent.
Their leaders give the impression, too, of wanting the business, of making themselves seem hungrier and more eager, throwing whatever it takes at winning the inward investment. Sir Keir Starmer put it well when he said at last month’s Davos World Economic Conference that Britain required a five- or 10-year strategy to save the UK car industry.
Even the fact that Starmer and his Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves were at the gathering and not Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, spoke volumes. Of course, it’s possible to be rude about Davos but it was Starmer and his colleague, not the Prime Minister and Chancellor, who were talking up the UK car industry on the international stage and meeting financiers from BlackRock, JP Morgan, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds and Bank of America.
Starmer is seeking closer ties with the EU, partnering the bloc in science and innovation, looking to support the car industry. It’s fraught with political risk, as he is keen, always, to stress he is not ditching Brexit and wishing to rejoin.
The Tory approach appears to be to do nothing. Having broken relations with the EU, it begins from a position of weakness in trying to get them restored, even partially. At the same time, Sunak must remain alert to the accusation from the Right and within his own party that he is quietly plotting to take Britain back in.
One of the benefits of Brexit we were promised was that Britain would be free to subsidise industries, that the shackles would be removed and the Government could provide state aid wherever it wished. Yet that has not occurred either. The car industry is crying out for meaningful assistance and again, nothing.
Sunak should have been seeing potential investors, offering whatever it takes to get them to choose Britain for the location of their next factory, the next model. From a party that historically was on the side of commerce, the Tory line is baffling. Urgently wanted: a Prime Minister who gets it, who really does get it and does more than turn up to picture opportunities, don a hard hat, grin and utter platitudes.
Chris Blackhurst is the author of Too Big To Jail: Inside HSBC, the Mexican drug cartels and the greatest banking scandal of the century (Macmillan)
