Workers at Devonport Dockyard are to receive an inflation-busting 13% pay rise this year, union bosses have said. Unite the Union said its members working for dockyard operator Babcock International Group Plc will benefit from an increase in their pay packets to help offset the cost of living crisis.

The union revealed an offer from Babcock of an across-the-board £1,500 per year pay increase had been accepted by Unite’s members at the site. For the lowest paid, the deal is worth 13%. Inflation is currently running at 9% in the UK but the Bank of England has predicted it will hit 10% this year.

In 2021, Babcock swung back into profit after recovering from the effects of the Covid pandemic and its restrictions. The FTSE-250 company’s half-year results for the six months to September 30, 2021, showed it made a statutory operating profit of £75.4m compared to a £785.3m loss in the prior year.

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Curt Stavis, the former founder of SpeedFerries is promoting a new SuperStainable(tm) ferry service that will operate under NetMinus(TM), a company that will be setting incredible new standards for environmentally friendly travel that could be the return of a cross-channel service from Boulogne-Sur-Mer.

He says that “The Ferry Industry owes the world serious Clean Tech solutions. France owes Boulogne-sur-Mer a ferry service.”

From its conception in 2004, SpeedFerries operated a year round, low cost, car ferry service between Dover and Boulogne until it closed in 2008

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The Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom Transport Select Committee has launched a #Maritime2050 inquiry. Share your views – submit written evidence by 25 March.

They are scrutinising the Government’s flagship maritime strategy, Maritime 2050 and are particularly interested in receiving written evidence that addresses:

a) Whether and how the ambitions and objectives described in Maritime 2050 support the maritime sector;

b) Progress towards the ambitions and targets set out in Maritime 2050, including the effectiveness, pace and priority of the strategy’s implementation; and

c) The effect of Maritime 2050 on Government policies and regulation, maritime sector decision making and economic and environmental outcomes, including the Clydebank declaration agreed at COP26.

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Regeneration projects across Argyll and Bute will benefit from nearly £2 million of funding.
 
Almost £2 million of Crown Estate Scotland funds, and The Scottish Government Islands Infrastructure Fund has been allocated to support a variety of community-based initiatives. 
 
Scottish Crown Estate funding is designed to deliver benefits for coastal communities with a focus on four key priorities: the environment, community, climate change and economic development.
 
Key investments include
 
-Rothesay Pontoons
-SWMID – Seaweed treatment infrastructure on Mull
-Jura Community Business – Mooring repair and upgrades to local visitor facility

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Fishing communities across the UK will be given the opportunity to benefit from better infrastructure, strengthened supply chains, new jobs and an investment in skills thanks to a £75 m boost for the sector announced by UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The investment will strengthen the sector’s ability to land more fish in the UK and take them to market faster. This will be achieved by improving the capacity and efficiency of our harbours and processing facilities while boosting the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry and supporting jobs, increasing opportunities for coastal communities and levelling up across the country.

A £65 million infrastructure scheme will be made available for projects such as modernising ports and harbours alongside increasing capacity and efficiency at processing and aquaculture facilities.

A competition will be run to identify the best projects, prioritising those that reduce carbon emissions, helping increase the sustainability of the sector and contributing towards the UK’s commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050.

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THE new UK Infrastructure Bank has announced the first ever project it plans to invest in – and it is based in the North East.

The bank, which launched in June 2021 to finance innovative infrastructure projects, tackle climate change and boost growth across the United Kingdom, will invest £107m in the new South Bank Quay at Teesworks.

The loan will see part of the former Redcar Steelworks site along the River Tees transformed into a 450-metre quay to service the offshore wind sector, providing opportunities for manufacturing, storage and mobilisation of wind technology.

The UK Infrastructure Bank deal will support around 800 jobs directly, with the potential to unlock thousands of jobs in total across the rest of the Teesworks site as development intensifies in the coming years.

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The Government expects hydrogen fuel to play an important role in the decarbonisation of heavy transport by 2030, as outlined in its Hydrogen Strategy.

It plans to unlock £4bn worth of investment and “kick start a world-leading hydrogen economy” as part of a new low carbon hydrogen energy sector.

The Government says hydrogen could play an important role in decarbonising polluting, energy-intensive industries like chemicals, oil refineries, power and heavy transport like shipping, HGV lorries and trains, by helping these sectors move away from fossil fuels.

The strategy, which was launched by business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, describes a “booming, UK-wide hydrogen economy” that could be worth £900 million and create more than 9,000 jobs by 2030.

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Siemens Gamesa (SGREN.MC) and GRI Renewable Industries will invest more than £260m ($360.70 m) into offshore wind manufacturing facilities in northeast England.

Siemens Gamesa will invest a total of £186 m to expand its blade manufacturing site located near Hull – Britain’s largest offshore wind manufacturing facility – readying it for the next generation of offshore wind turbines and blades greater than 100 metres, the government said.

Siemens Gamesa will add 200 workers to the 1,000 it already employs in the factory, the company said in a separate statement.

GRI Renewable Industries will spend £78 m to build an offshore wind turbine tower factory at Able Marine Energy Park, also in Hull creating up to 260 jobs.

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Work has started on a £2.5m project to build a marine engineering workshop and vessel wash-down area at Stornoway Harbour.

New jobs are expected to be created when the facility, being developed by Stornoway Port Authority (SPA), opens.

The project is the final part of a wider £12m investment in the Newton Basin and Goat Island areas of the harbour by the organisation.

Serving commercial and leisure markets, the workshop will house two covered boat repair bays, one of which will be available on a long-term lease and the other on a short-term basis.

It is being built on land reclaimed to create the 75-berth Newton Marina.

SPA awarded the construction contact for the development to Ayrshire-based 3b Construction, with a subcontract package going to Breedon Hebrides.

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Boris Johnson has announced that a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia will be built and operational within four years.

Downing Street has unveiled plans, which will see the new ship “host high level trade negotiations and trade shows and will sail all over the world promoting British interests” as a part of the country’s post-Brexit “open Britain” push.

The new £200m ship will replace the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was the 83rd and last royal yacht after Tony Blair opted to not build a replacement.

Downing Street said the new ship’s role will be “distinct from that of any previous national flagship” and will dock at countries that are due for prime ministerial visits.

But there’s just one small problem the Queen nor her family want one.

The idea that it might be named after her late husband Prince Philip was snubbed by Buckingham Palace and a senior royal told The Sunday Times that a royal yacht was “too grand” a symbol for use in the modern age. “It is not something we have asked for,” they added.

National Maritime Perspective:
It is not a new national flagship that we need to announce that we are once more “a great independent, maritime nation!” Whilst it would most definitely support shipbuilding in this country, there may just be better ways to represent and promote the best of British… but there again Boris is of course a sucker for vanity projects…anyone fancy a stroll across the Garden Bridge!

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