AN AGREEMENT to be signed within weeks will help ensure defence work for the Clyde for the next 15 years, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy has claimed.
With fears over the future of two of the Clyde's last remaining shipbuilding yards, Mr Murphy announced yesterday that their futures may be secured with work on a new generation of frigates.
A secret memo that emerged this week raised concerns
that once the giant aircraft carrier contract came to an end in 2014, warship builder BVT's Scotstoun yard in Glasgow could close due to a lack of orders.
And there are worries too about BVT's Govan yard. Between them, the two yards have a dependent workforce of 4,000.
However, after a meeting with BVT yesterday Mr Murphy said the "terms of business agreement" between the Ministry of Defence and warship builder BVT would offer "real assurance" for future jobs.
The SNP yesterday challenged the UK government to stand by the yards and make sure work was provided to keep them open. SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said the government should guarantee shipbuilding contracts beyond the aircraft carriers, including transportation vessels and speeding up frigate replacement.
Mr Robertson said: "As a UK minister, Mr Murphy must categorically rule out his government's behind-the-scenes support for the closure of these yards."
The author of the leaked memo, BVT surface fleet chief executive Alan Johnston, who accompanied Mr Murphy on yesterday's visit, insisted the document was no more than the type of "worst-case scenario planning" conducted by all prudent firms.
He said: "What we are looking at in these stolen documents are planning scenarios. We are looking at planning scenarios on the downside, but our aim is to drive for the upside of this business – and we see a very solid future here on the Clyde."
Mr Murphy insisted: "There's seven years of work here, and we are looking over the next few weeks to sign an agreement that would guarantee some work for the next 15 years.
"The Clyde has a remarkable history in shipbuilding, but it also has a big future."
BVT employs 7,000 workers at the Govan and Scotstoun yards in Glasgow, at Portsmouth and at a facility in Bristol.
The terms of business agreement to be signed shortly is understood to be a 15-year pact setting out how the Ministry of Defence and the company will work together.
It was expected to include provision for up to 18 new-generation frigates to replace the Type 22 and Type 23 vessels. Mr Johnston said that steel for these could begin to be cut in 2013 and Govan could be a contender: "I would suspect that's a prospect."
Decisions on where these would be built had not yet been made but the firm had the flexibility to switch work between its yards – as shown by work now under way at Scotstoun on vessels which had started to be constructed at Portsmouth.
Mr Johnston said: "First, this is the first time in a generation that a shipyard can look seven years forward and see a steady, full order book.
"We have to be confident that we are signing a 15-year agreement with the MoD which commits sole-source activity – BVT – to provide the Future Surface Combatant (the frigates].
"In terms of the agreement, I am confident we will have those ships in design and construction over the next few years, ready to start steel cutting in 2013."
AnalysisTHE combination of the threat to jobs in two of Scotland's most iconic industries – whisky and shipbuilding – has focused minds on the real political battleground of the next two years.
Both the SNP and Labour were in an almost indecent hurry over the last few days to lay the blame with each other for job losses in the Clyde and the Johnnie Walker plant at Kilmarnock.
The reason for this is the political portrayal of the recession.
The SNP is keen to blame job losses on Labour for being responsible for the recession at a UK government level and argue that as the Scottish Government it does not have the powers to tackle it.
But Labour want voters to see the recession as a worldwide phenomenon outside their control and ask why SNP ministers are not using their powers to support jobs. In the end whoever wins this blame game will be the one who comes off best in the general election next year.
