Clyde shipbuilding welding centre back on track after UK funds pledge

After the UK government announced £22, a specialist welding facility to support shipbuilding looks to be going forward. 5m of extra funding. The £11 million initiative, led by Rolls Royce, aims to fund the construction and maintenance of Royal Navy submarines. When it became clear that funding from Scottish Enterprise would not be available as a result of the SNP's ban on funding companies involved in munitions, the plans were put into question earlier this year. Labour accused the SNP of student union politics, at the time, but First Minister John Swinney has since revealed that the long-running strategy would be scrapped.

Rolls Royce will operate the new welding center at Old Kirkpatrick, near the Erskine Bridge, in collaboration with Strathclyde University and marine engineering company Malin, which is assisting in the construction of a new Scottish Marine Technology Park. At Labour's conference, Defence Secretary John Healey will announce that the UK government will now have £2. The project's backers had hoped that Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's economic development company, would provide the project with 5 million dollars.

Where the SNP will not support Scottish industry, young people, or national security,

Healey said, Labour will step in. "Labour is making Scotland a shipbuilding superpower once more with our record defense investment and historic exports agreements. We'll provide good, well-paid jobs and opportunities throughout the Clyde, Rosyth, Methil, and other areas.

With the announcement last month of a £10 billion export order for BAE Systems in Glasgow to produce Type 26 frigates for the Norwegian Navy, naval shipbuilding in Scotland is seeing a revival. Babcock is also secure in the east of the region, having exported orders for Type 31 frigates being built at Rosyth. The threat to the planned specialist welding center, first reported by The Times newspaper in May, triggered a political controversy and challenged SNP's long-standing SNP policy of not providing subsidies for manufacturers involved in munitions. Healey appeared on BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show at the time, the SNP was participating in student union politicsthat could stifle innovation and deny young people's opportunities. Mairi Gougeon, the Scottish government, retaliated, saying that unlike the UK government,

we have principles and stick to them. However, four months later, First Minister John Swinney declared that the policy on munitions had been updated in light of the

changed international landscape" with the exception of companies that sold arms to Israel.

New policy

Scottish Enterprise said it did not receive a formal request for funding, but it did have informal discussions with Malin about the proposals. At the time, Scottish government policy advice did not endorse the manufacture of munitions, and Malin was warned that any funding could only be considered if it was in accordance with government policy.

We continue to collaborate with the Scottish government as we implement the new strategy,

a Scottish Enterprise spokesperson said.

The Scottish government reported that it had more than £90 million in support to companies operating in the aerospace, defense, and shipbuilding industries since 2006/07.

We continue to support the defense sector, particularly in terms of workforce growth, which is vital to our national security and a strategic driver for Scotland's economy," a spokesperson said.