Continuing News . Hand shaking and pictures taken with politicians.17 May 2024 06:18
GMB says historic shipyard’s workers are concerned by reports that chancellor could withhold vital export credit guarantee
Jasper Jolly
Thu 16 May 2024 13.01 EDT
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A union representing workers at the historic Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast has written to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, warning that doubts over financial support for the company are putting jobs in jeopardy.
The GMB said workers were concerned by claims that a £200m export guarantee could be blocked by the Treasury, despite having the backing of the ministries for defence, business and trade, and Northern Ireland.
The news follows reports that the chancellor is considering blocking the controversial £200m financial support package for the company, which also owns facilities in Devon and Scotland as well as the Belfast shipyard, which is famous for being the place where the doomed liner Titanic was built.
The row has cast doubts over the government’s commitment to spreading contracts for navy ships across the UK under its national shipbuilding strategy, and the suggestion by the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, in a speech on Tuesday that the UK had entered a “golden age of shipbuilding”.
Harland & Wolff is part of a consortium with Spain’s state-owned Navantia that was awarded a £1.6bn contract to build “fleet solid support ships” – auxiliary vessels designed to transport ammunition and other provisions to Royal Navy warships.
In the letter to Hunt, the GMB’s general secretary, Gary Smith, wrote: “The workforce at Harland & Wolff are maximising UK manufactured content that supports growth and security of UK capabilities, in areas that need these jobs and apprenticeships – Northern Ireland, Devon, the Outer Hebrides and Fife.
“All of this is being placed in jeopardy by the time it is taking to get a [UK Export Finance] guarantee to allow the business to refinance.”
Harland & Wolff has applied for a £200m guarantee from UK Export Finance, a government body. The guarantee would allow it to borrow to pay off expensive debts owed to Riverstone Credit Partners, a US investor. However, the Treasury is reportedly considering vetoing the support, which would underwrite £200m in loans to a company whose stock market value this week slumped to £17m.
Rishi Sunak, in a yellow hi-vis jacket and hard hat, standing with a group of men in a cavernous building
Rishi Sunak on a visit to the shipyard in 2022. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
The Harland & Wolff yard is well known in Belfast because of its two yellow cranes – Samson and Goliath – that dominate the city’s skyline. However, the London-headquartered company bearing its name only bought the famous shipyard out of administration in 2019, before adopting the historic brand in 2021.
The company has not made a profit since shifting focus from developing a gas storage project to taking over the shipyard. It l
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