Support for Industry

12. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support industry.

We are cutting electricity costs for up to 10,000 businesses through the British industrial competitiveness scheme, and expanding the supercharger scheme. We are also strengthening key supply chains and protecting jobs through the steel strategy, the new £350 million critical chemicals resilience fund, and the £120 million in support for our ceramics sector.

I welcome the decisions taken by the Chancellor and Government colleagues to revise the electric vehicle targets for 2030, following representations from the industry, unions and MPs. Targets are really great, but they need to match capabilities and market realities. What assessment has she made of how the change will safeguard jobs in the automotive supply chain in my constituency of Stourbridge and across the UK?

I thank my hon. Friend, and other MPs who speak for constituencies with automotive businesses, for their representations. As she said, we are bringing forward the review of the zero emission vehicle mandate, so it will now take place this year—a year earlier than planned. In that, we will look at a slower phase-in of those targets to bring us closer, for example, to where the EU is. Automotive is the crown jewel of British manufacturing. We must not let targets damage our sector; that would lead to money being paid out to foreign companies, such as those in China, that produce more electric vehicles. That is why we have made the changes, and why we are having the review.

Mid Buckinghamshire is home to a number of businesses that are part of the supply chain for the aerospace and defence industries. Those businesses rely on steel that is categorically not made here in the United Kingdom. If the Department for Business and Trade fails to rectify the cliff edge that is coming on steel tariffs, what will the Treasury do to backfill that and ensure that many businesses, such as those in my constituency, do not become completely unviable?

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about making sure that we get the balance right. We are supporting steel made in Britain, which the previous Government neglected; we are backing it through the nationalisation of the steelworks in Scunthorpe and more support for Port Talbot and Sheffield, but I also recognise the challenge that some British companies will face. This is why, for example, as is shown by the work that we are doing with the EU on the upcoming EU-UK summit, we want a steel alliance, to reduce tariffs on steel.

I call the shadow Minister.

Next week, those swingeing 50% tariffs on steel imports will hit manufacturing businesses across the country, putting thousands of jobs at risk. While they are intended to protect domestic production, industry is warning that many grades simply are not made in the UK in the quantity needed. It is a simple question for the Chancellor: will she guarantee that tariffs will not apply where businesses cannot get steel in the UK?

Our steel strategy protects the UK steel industry, so that more orders can come to British Steel and other steel manufacturers in the UK. We will not allow our steel sector to be undercut by cheap foreign imports.