{"id":7195,"date":"2015-12-18T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7195"},"modified":"2015-12-18T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T16:00:15","slug":"too-little-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7195","title":{"rendered":"Too little, too late"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UK steel industry has received much needed support, as the UK was given EU state aid approval to give green tax rebates for energy-intensive industries.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe aid package will be worth hundreds of millions in total \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the department for business, innovation and skills estimates the deal to total \u00c2\u0141380m, while the EEF manufacturers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 association estimates \u00c2\u0141300m.<\/p>\n

 
\nEnergy-intensive industries, such as steel, chemicals and paper, have long argued for relief from green taxes, which they say has put them at a disadvantage to international competitors who do not face such taxes.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut Unite has warned that the move is too little, too late for steelworkers crying out for decisive government action to save an industry that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been brought to its knees.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government has dragged its heels on this and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all very late, too late for those 2,000 workers at Redcar who face a very uncertain Christmas and New Year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite head of media Alex Flynn.<\/p>\n

 
\nSince this summer, nearly 5,000 steel jobs have been axed, with the steelworks in Redcar being permanently shuttered in October after the government refused to intervene and the coke ovens went cold.<\/p>\n

 
\nFlynn argued that the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s action on green taxes now would not have happened had it not been for steel unions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pressure.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only reason the government felt forced to do anything was because of the collaboration between the unions and the steel industry bodies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Flynn said.
\nDirector of UK Steel Gareth Stace echoed Flynn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerns.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a hugely significant and welcome announcement, but this is far from job done,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Stace told the Guardian<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe dumping of Chinese steel continues and must be stopped.”<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe business secretary has done well to deliver this first stage of the state aid package,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the government cannot afford to let up on ensuring that all major procurement projects, from rail to tidal barrages and airports, all use British steel to give this vital UK industry confidence for the long term.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd ministers can do more by reforming business rates to exclude some of the penalties steel companies and others face if they invest in plant and machinery.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite has long called for the government to have a strong industrial strategy for manufacturing, with public procurement at its heart, to boost local economies and the wider economy as a whole.<\/p>\n

 
\nRead more about Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s industrial strategy proposals here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK steel industry has received much needed support, as the UK was given EU state aid approval to give green tax rebates for energy-intensive industries.   The aid package will be worth hundreds of millions in total \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the department for business, innovation and skills estimates the deal to total \u00c2\u0141380m, while the EEF […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[396,423,269],"wps_subtitle":"Steel tax rebates too late for Redcar ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7196,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195\/revisions\/7196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}