Kevin Rowan column

Feb 6 2006 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

For the workers at Circatex in South Tyneside, wondering about the survival of their company, and bringing with it the threat of redundancy, is an all too familiar experience.

Workers in Vald Birn in Northumberland, too, will all know someone close by who has recently lost their manufacturing job, if they themselves haven't already been through this experience.

For the last 25 years, manufacturing jobs have been disappearing from the UK, exported to lower cost centres around the globe.

What is compelling about these recent potential losses is not the threat of lower labour costs elsewhere but the fact that businesses are closing because of rapidly increasing energy costs.

In some cases, the bill has shown an 80% increase in just a few years and all of the signs are that these costs will continue to grow. The launch of the `energy review' a week or so ago, may have come too late for some of the companies in our region, but this review certainly needs to take into account the economic impact of the energy market.

For many, the review provides an opportunity for us to think again about the environmental impacts of different types of energy production, and that is, of course, vital. CO2 emissions need to be curbed urgently, while clean coal technology, carbon capture, renewable energy and bio-fuels all offer significant potential for the regional economy. But there is also a direct impact on existing businesses that needs to be harnessed, too.

Which is why the energy review needs to be developed in context with a new, modern industrial policy. Manufacturing still matters.

It may have declined dramatically in the last 20 years, but in our region it still accommodates 17% of the region's labour market and contributes more than 21% of the region's GVA, the most important economic measure.

It is possible now for many workplaces to introduce renewable energy sources on-site to reduce their current energy bills as well as offering a positive impact on the environment, and there are few objections to wind turbines on industrial estates or in factory car parks.

But there is an initial investment to be made and it is here that there must be one of the clear connections between industrial and energy policy.

But time is the critical element. Already this year we are facing hundreds of further job losses, purely because of increasing energy costs. The technology exists now to reduce the growing burden of energy costs on businesses, and we can't afford to wait, economically or environmentally.

Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of the Northern TUC.