Shipbuilders told to come clean about UK workforce for £1.6bn supply vessels
Shipbuilders were today urged to come clean about how many British workers and how much UK kit will be used in a fleet of naval support vessels.
A “Team Resolute” bid led by Spanish company Navantia won the £1.6billion contract for three Fleet Solid Support ships last November - beating a consortium of UK-based companies in a move critics branded a “betrayal”. Much of the work will be carried out in Cadiz, with some work at Harland and Wolff’s Belfast site, where the Titanic was built.
Now, the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions has demanded to see plans outlining how UK workers and firms will benefit from the deal. The CSEU’s maritime chairman Matthew Roberts, a GMB union national officer, has written to Harland & Wolff, ship designers BMT and Madrid-based Navantia calling for answers. He asked for copies of the “UK Content Plan for Fleet Solid Support” and “your Social Value and Training Plan”.
In the letter, seen exclusively by the Mirror, he says: “As you will appreciate, our members have been told that these documents set out the Team Resolute commitments to investment in the UK workforce and domestic supply chains, and – on that basis – sight of the plans is essential if confidence is to be built in the project across the wider workforce.
“We believe it is crucial that these plans are visible, understood and trusted by all stakeholders, including the workforce we represent. Engagement with the workforce and representatives will be vital to delivering a successful programme.”
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The trio of 709ft, 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels will resupply Royal Navy aircraft carriers, frigates and destroyers with food, ammunition and explosives. When it announced the contract in November 2022, the Government claimed 1,200 jobs will be created in the UK. But at least 40% of the value of the work - worth about £640million - will go overseas, with some of the building taking place in Cadiz.
Hundreds of jobs in Spain are expected to be created or safeguarded - posts which unions believe could have come to Britain if a rival bid from Team UK, including BAE Systems and Babcock, had won.
Mr Roberts told the Mirror: “Team Resolute must now publish their UK Content Plan and Social Value and Training Plan so they can be held to account on them. Firstly, UK workers need to see that the level of UK work on FSS is significant, as we have always been promised it would be when we learnt the work would not exclusively be within the UK. Secondly, we need to ensure there is no backsliding of work from the UK to foreign yards; work that is allocated and promised to UK yards such as Belfast and Appledore must be completed in these yards.
“It is not good enough for Team Resolute or indeed the Tories at Westminster to tell us they have a social value plan for FSS but we can't see it - the UK shipbuilding workforce must be able to have trust in it.”
Harland & Wolff, BMT and Navantia were contacted separately for comment. Team Resolute issued a statement saying: “The £1.6bn FSS programme contributes significant social and economic value to the UK. More than 1,200 manufacturing jobs will be involved, with a further 800 further jobs expected to be sustained across the UK supply chain; 120 high-skilled jobs will be supported by designer BMT across its Bristol, Bath, Weymouth, Fareham, Glasgow, and Southampton sites.
“The FSS is based on an entirely British crafted design from BMT and is also the basis for a significant recapitalisation plan which is already underway at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. The Social Value Plan is commercially sensitive and therefore, would not be appropriate to release.”
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