After a huge political row locally over the future siting of two Electric Arc Furnaces – which both now look likely to be in Scunthorpe and not split between there and Teesworks as originally proposed – Mr Reynolds said: “I have no concerns about the future for Teesside because it’s a great place to invest and there’s a great pipeline of projects coming forward.
“But when we talk about that transition to Scunthorpe, obviously I think people would recognise it wouldn’t be just for me as Secretary of State to say I wish to take jobs there and put them somewhere else.”
On the day that manufacturer JATCO officially opened a new factory, creating up to 183 jobs working closely with Nissan, Mr Reynolds said he had already explained the British Steel situation to Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and said: “We’re looking at opportunities.
“When it comes to British Steel, in the future, you build the electric arc furnaces alongside the operation of those blast furnaces, but they lose so much money per day that the company’s patience is exhausted. The last government ran down the clock, to be frank, when they could have been having these negotiations.
“The specific issue in relation to Teesside is that obviously the blast furnaces are currently at Scunthorpe at the core of a plan from British Steel for the future. It’s the company itself that will give us that plan and we’ll decide whether that’s something we can support. But I can’t tell British Steel to take jobs from Scunthorpe and put them in Teesside.
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“So I want to get to a deal with British Steel. I’ve got to make sure that’s the right deal for the future and it’s good value for public money. But in terms of government commitment, there’s more money and more commitment behind the steel industry than there’s been for decades.”
Situated on the International Advanced Manufacturing Park, Sunderland, the JATCO factory will produce electrified powertrains for the nearby Nissan plant. Its 138,840 sq ft facility represents a £48.7m investment into the UK and will create up to 183 highly skilled jobs.
Mr Reynolds also said there was likely to be more investment coming to the North East, with culture and Advanced Manufacturing among the eight key sectors he was looking at.
“Those are the sectors that the data tells us have the biggest opportunities for the UK. Advanced manufacturing is one of those and obviously there’s a real history, real pedigree in the North East.” he said.
“There are huge opportunities across the board in these sectors. I think creative industries in particular with the opportunities around Crown Works, but we’re talking to people about opportunities around investment across the North East. I think there’s real opportunities in terms of AI and data centres in particular.
“There’s a lot of grid capacity here, which is a really important part of that. So it’s not limited to one area and our ambitions are never going to be narrow. There’s a great story with the JATCO and the investment with Nissan in automotive, but across a whole range of sectors, the North East is a great place to invest in.”
The new furnace which was planned for Teesside (Image: TVCA)
Mr Reynolds told The Northern Echo there would always be Government money to support projects in the North East if the deal was a good one.
“If people look back to the initial announcements when Nissan first arrived here if you told them this is where we’d be, this is how successful the story would have been, there’s no doubt that it’s a good value for money proposition,” he said.
“Look, I think what this government brings that’s different to the recent past is that we had a lot of political instability, a lot of prime ministers and business secretaries and chancellors after Brexit in the UK. We’ve had the election now, we’ve got that political stability, we are open to the world, whether that’s the US, the EU, India, China, the Gulf.
“We’re willing to use the majority we’ve got in Parliament to do some of the difficult things that need to be done on planning, grid, energy, skills, regulation, industrial strategy, to make sure for the long term the business and investor environment is everything it can be in the UK. And the proof of that is that you get decisions like this – anything I say, any strategy I publish is only as good as the decisions that come on the back of it.
“So when you’ve got the kind of news we’ve got today, it’s obviously a great story, but it’s a great endorsement of that stability, openness, and willingness to improve the business environment.
“There’s more good things to come, I can definitely say that.”