A planned £11 million specialist Clyde welding centre by Rolls-Royce and the Malin Group at the Scottish Marine Technology Park in Clydebank was on the brink of failure because Scottish Enterprise refused a £2.5m support grant. When the request for support was made to the then SNP Government it was refused due to their stance against funding munitions. The UK Government has rescued the initiative and the funding will be delivered through the Government’s Unity contract with Rolls-Royce, an eight-year £9 billion agreement to support the Royal Navy’s fleet of nuclear submarines. The centre will be managed by Rolls-Royce Submarines in partnership with Malin Group and Strathclyde University.
Since their decision was made the SNP came under harsh criticism and have dropped their ban on public cash for arms firms, First Minister John Swinney told MSPs that it was time to “recognise the reality of the importance of defence” with the ongoing war in Ukraine. The Scottish Herald sums it up here.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said that the Labour Government were “making Scotland a shipbuilding superpower once again. We will deliver good, well-paid jobs and opportunities across the Clyde, Rosyth, Methil and beyond.”
The Scottish Marine Technology Park (SMTP) provides “a unique environment for world-leading innovators in the marine industry to co-locate, collaborate and create a self-sustaining eco-system designed to reinvigorate shipbuilding and renewable industries on the banks of the Clyde – and beyond.”
