The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that no decision has yet been made on appointing a new shipbuilding tsar to oversee the revitalisation of the UK’s shipbuilding industry.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Baroness Goldie, Lord Coaker, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, emphasised that while the role remains under consideration, ministers are actively engaged in shaping shipbuilding policy.
“UK shipbuilding is a vital pillar of our Defence industrial base and, as a high-growth sector, will play an important role in our ambitions to secure the nation, kick-start economic growth and become a clean energy superpower,” Lord Coaker stated.
The UK shipbuilding tsar is a government-appointed role aimed at overseeing and driving the development of the nation’s shipbuilding industry. The position plays a strategic leadership role in ensuring the successful implementation of the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), focusing on modernising the sector, enhancing competitiveness, and securing long-term sustainability.
Key responsibilities include fostering innovation, promoting exports, and collaborating with industry to strengthen the workforce and supply chains. The role is also integral to advancing green technologies, such as sustainable propulsion systems, and boosting the economic impact of shipbuilding in coastal communities.
Historically, the shipbuilding tsar has served as a critical liaison between the government and industry. The position supports efforts to align government policy with industry needs, enabling the delivery of vital defence and commercial shipbuilding programmes. The role involves coordinating cross-departmental initiatives, such as investment in naval shipbuilding, workforce development, and export promotion.
Ok another level of civil servants then because the Tzar will need his minions won’t he?
I stopped at “clean energy superpower” lol!
I just read China and India will increase use of coal next 3 years so yep this lead by example is really working !!!! The reality is if we miss net zero by a few years or few % or both it won’t make a difference to the planet, in the end we’ll be faction of a % of global emissions, so its not sensible or relevant to set ourselves such stringent targets.
Just don’t vote for the red, blue, yellow, green uni party.
I’m not sure where the source of your information about China and India is but they were reporting the issuing of a report by the international energy agency.
What it says is that both China and India are growing their renewables each year and are likely to keep on using coal at s very high rate for three more years before coal use drops off.
These forecasts are just that, not accurate predictions from an all seeing crystal ball. Coal use may go above or fall short of the forecast depending on the weather and price of gas.
They are forecasting a steady decline for both countries from 2027 as they do for the UK, Europe and the USA.
A short term pick up in coal used to replace high priced gas is not an excuse for the UK to slow down it’s drive for cheaper renewable energy.
If the Suez canal is closed gas prices will go up again. Every new wind turbine will help to reduce the price change for electricity relative to the change in gas prices.
Electricity prices shot up when gas prices did in 2022 but not as much as they would have done if we got more electricity from gas fired power stations than we actually did.
Thanks for the detailed fact based analysis.
It is primarily because we are massive energy importer and the way to stop that is to move to EV’s, nuclear and renewables. The environmental benefits are just an added bonus.
Well let hope its someone with actual experience, it appears that the team select by the government to shape the industrial strategy is largely devoid of industrialists!!!
As is anyone in the civil service.
Knowledge and experience and frowned upon…
“UK shipbuilding is a vital pillar of our Defence industrial base and, as a high-growth sector, will play an important role in our ambitions to secure the nation, kick-start economic growth and become a clean energy superpower,” Lord Coaker stated.’
Shorter version for those in a hurry: They haven’t got a clue.
Is the MOD the slowest organisation on the planet. It does everything as slowly as possible and just hopes whatever the issue is it will go away. Like a teenager having to do some homework.
Nope – this is a political appointee.
MOD will have input but ultimately it is ministerial.
For goodness sake, shouldn’t this “tzar” person have already been in place years ago? Lets hope the UK gets the Norwegian T26 order and some more A140/T31 orders happen.
Yes it should have been, the Tory’s launched a national ship building strategy then never followed it up, just went back to more short term cost cutting decisions like awarding FSSS to Spanish firm to save a few quid.
Had to check as I was going to write “Czar” , but it looks like they’re both okay.
Great idea, sheer genius. Firstly the post non-sensible irony of a Russian title, really? Oh yes the drugs czar, inner city czar and all the other £100k a year morons we have had over the years worked so well didn’t they? Would the czar have stopped Harland and Wolff being thrown away by the new Labour industrialists? Doubt it. Just build more ships quicker than we are now is what we need not some civil servant puke in Whitehall
So simple, who’s paying for these ships and who is going to sail them?
Off topic: It looks like Navantia will be buying all the Harland and Wolff shipyards. It’s expected they will take on Belfast, Appledore, Methil and Arnish, including all staff, and will even come up with backpay. According to the FT “the British government offered the Spanish defence group more generous terms [on the FSSS contract]”. It will be interesting to see just how generous HMG has had to be, and just how transparent HMG will be about it.
Government making the best of a bad situation, Navantia should never have been allowed to bid in the first place.
Given the bad situation of the government’s own making, this is probably the least worst outcome.
The UK lost its shipping building years ago and the capacity to build such large complex vessels. The Spanish have at least managed to keep their yards going all these years with a home market and many sold abroad when the UK sold nothing at all. Sorry the UK is dead in the water and will never be as it once was. At least the yards will now continue and will have work for sure as their management and marketing is way better. UK workers will just have to step up and deliver on time and cost the best units they can. New Boss to cover the sector? What we need is a real business person who can kick ass and get things done. Building at a rate needed to make the process realistic not the snail pace we currently have and that will not only save money but get the RN into a position were it actually has ships that can go to sea. We will see but the future is not bright currently………………………. The MOD just keep dumping units when they are actually needed (the Wave’s are a real asset that should be kept as the RN and NATO actually need them – so sort out the RFA wage issue and get their numbers up to what they should be and better use the service personnel so they can crew the vessels needed). NO need for both carriers to be operational with full crews as there will never be the aircraft to go on them in the numbers to be effective. A once proud serviceman now ashamed to be associated with the UK Military……………
Putting ships in reserve of any kind results in them rotting away and being scrapped, we should not do that with the carriers
The UK lost its shipping building years ago and the capacity to build such large complex vessels. The Spanish have at least managed to keep their yards going all these years with a home market and many sold abroad when the UK sold nothing at all. Sorry the UK is dead in the water and will never be as it once was. At least the yards will now continue and will have work for sure as their management and marketing is way better. UK workers will just have to step up and deliver on time and cost the best units they can. New Boss to cover the sector? What we need is a real business person who can kick ass and get things done. Building at a rate needed to make the process realistic not the snail pace we currently have and that will not only save money but get the RN into a position were it actually has ships that can go to sea. We will see what the future brings.
There is a very strong negative correlation to how much workers get paid and how many ships a country builds.
Focusing industry on large scale ship production in the 21st century is a good way to make a country poor.
We should limit domestic ship building to what we need for our military and a little bit of export and that’s it.
Imstead of another penpushing time served civil servant it would be more appropriate if an ex or serving RN officer took up the role ..