- The UK’s shipbuilding industry currently supports 42,600 jobs across the UK and contributes more than £2.8bn to the economy.
- A new UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, led by the Department for Education, is being created.
- Defence secretary Ben Wallace has also been christened shipbuilding tsar in a government release today.
Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, will visit a Merseyside dockyard today to announce a £4 billion ($5.3 billion) investment in the UK’s regional shipbuilding industry, the latest in a succession of shipyard initiatives launched during his nearly three-year tenure as reported by Splash 247.
Shipping industry
The money comes as the Ministry of Defense prepares to release its updated National Shipbuilding Strategy today.
The shipbuilding industry in the United Kingdom currently employs 42,600 people and generates more than £2.8 billion in revenue.
“Shipbuilding has been in our DNA for centuries, and I want to guarantee that it continues to be at the core of British industry for future generations,” Johnson said.
The Department for Education is leading the formation of a new UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce.
Investment
Meanwhile, the Department of Transport will invest £206 million in the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK-SHORE) as part of the goal to match fund research and development in zero-emission vessels and infrastructure.
A new Maritime Capability Campaign Office (MCCO) will be established inside the Department of International Trade.
In a government announcement today, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was also dubbed “Shipbuilding Tsar.” “With major government investment, we will be levelling up across our shipbuilding workforce, from shipyard to supplier, from procurement to designer, creating tens of thousands of new jobs and raising living standards and wages,” Wallace said.
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Source: Splash 247
