2. Urgent Question: Ford’s Bridgend Engine Plant

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 13 September 2016.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 2:23, 13 September 2016

The majority of the employees in Ford Bridgend are in the constituency of my friend, the First Minister, but also my own. Having spoken to the unions and the workforce and Ford’s management themselves it is clear that whilst Brexit isn’t the pertinent factor in this decision—it’s a lower volume of the production of the Dragon engines—it is an issue that is concerning them because of this very issue that the Cabinet Secretary says, which is that, in order to make a success of this plant, we need future constant reinvention of the product lines, new investment in those lines, and to have the Welsh Government standing firmly behind them, as we’ve always done in the past as well. This is a darn good workforce. They are highly skilled. It is one of the most productive lines within Europe of any automotive engineers. It has a good future, and we must talk the plant up, but the workforce does have those concerns that there will actually be future investment in new lines. So, at the earliest opportunity when he can expand on those plans, that would be really helpful, because we need to see these jobs maintained in south Wales.