9. Urgent Question: Tata Steel

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:16 pm on 7 December 2016.

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Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 6:16, 7 December 2016

I very much welcome Tata’s statement today, and indeed your response, Cabinet Secretary, here in the Chamber. I think Tata’s statement is testament to the very strong ‘Save Our Steel’ campaign of the steelworkers and the trade unions representing them, and indeed the role played by our Welsh Labour Government here and yourself as Cabinet Secretary, and of course many Assembly Members as well, particularly my colleague David Rees as the AM for Aberavon. So, it’s very pleasing that we’ve reached this stage today, Cabinet Secretary, but obviously, as we’ve already discussed, there is further work to be done to ensure that we do have the certainty that David Rees spoke about and the stability moving forward.

For me, of course, I’m crucially concerned with Tata at Llanwern and indeed the Orb steelworks, with their very high-quality electrical steels. Tata at Llanwern with the Zodiac plant is a very high-quality downstream operation, producing steel for the car industry and their general production at Llanwern. So, I wonder if you could assure me and the workers in those Newport plants, Cabinet Secretary, that when discussing the use of that £1 billion investment for all the steel operations of Tata, you will not neglect sites such as those at Llanwern and the Orb steelworks, and make sure that that £1 billion investment supports those very high-quality operations and ensures a sustainable future for those Newport plants.