Fergusson Marine and the failure of industrial policy

Today we learn that the future for Ferguson Marine is looking uncertain. Common Weal would argue that this was the inevitable outcome of a series of disconnected and poorly coordinated decisions spanning a decade. To rebuild an industry requires a long-term plan which is coordinated and stuck to throughout.

Scotland had a desire to rebuild a shipbuilding industry. Scotland also had a state-owned fleet of ferries which needed fairly urgent replacement. Putting these two facts together should have made for a fairly straightforward long-term industrial strategy. That a total mess has been made of this is of national concern.

Building up a new industry takes time. The initial stages of creating a long-term strategy should have identified that. It was always likely that building a complex ferry via a new-start would require teething troubles to be overcome. It therefore made sense to recognise this and begin by commissioning some well-understood ship designs which were neither complicated nor innovative.

It would also have recognised that these would likely be a little slower to deliver than they would be via an established shipyard. It would have been better to begin with slightly smaller, less complicated commissions and to have been prepared to accept slightly slower delivery.

That would then have required a concerted plan to create a pipeline of orders over an extended period to ensure that Fergusson Marine was best equipped to grow and sustain itself. That was never going to be achieved by dumping a highly (and rapidly changing) specification for two initial ferries on a new-start, panicking and then putting everything else out to competitive tender (which a domestic new-start was unlikely to win).

Short-term decision-making based on political rather than strategic concerns followed by more short-term decision-making based on political rather than strategic concerns was always likely to result in failure. Common Weal has argued again and again that an industrial strategy requires a proper plan, forward thinking, patience, strategic interventions and consistency and nerve.

That is not what has happened with Fergusson Marine and it has undermined confidence that Scotland will ever be able to reindustrialise. It is another failure of domestic industrial policy after failing to capture renewable energy manufacturing. Lessons must be learned.

Find out more about Common Weal’s approach to reindustrialising Scotland here.