Shipping Out: An Inside Out Special Inside Out South

The battle is on to save Portsmouth's shipbuilding heritage.

With closures set for next year, how will more than a thousand families

cope with the devastating impact on their lives. It will affect

everyone, basically. All my friends and family and every local business

around. We'll be asking if the south lost out to Scottish ship building

yards because of the independence referendum. It is a sad day for the

loss of work in the South yet again for a political decision for

Scotland to have all the work and others have nothing. And as the

south's contribution to the ?6 billion aircraft carrier contract is

brought to a premature end, we'll be looking back at the history and

politics surrounding shipbuilding on the south coast ` a region which

traditionally thrives in times of war but which now must learn to live

with the impact of defence cuts. I'm Robert Hall reporting from

Portsmouth for Inside Out South. Sports mode's historic dockyard is

still home to some of our most famous warships. More than five

centuries after shipbuilding began here came the news last week it was

to disappear. BAE Systems who have the monopoly on building warships in

Britain broke the story already widely linked, over 1000 jobs were

to go in England and Scotland. Statement, the secretary of state

for defence. Philip Hammond. With permission I would like to make a

statement on the future of shipbuilding programmes of the Royal

Navy. The house will be aware that this morning BAE Systems has

announced plans for their shipbuilding business. The surge of

work for the carriers comes to an end and that will regrettably mean

the closure of the shipbuilding yard in Portsmouth. It is all going to

Scotland and there is nothing left. I have had 900 through Portsmouth.

It is not good for us. A sad day for the loss of work in the South yet

again for the political decision for Scotland to have all the work and as

have nothing. We build a better product than govern. We have been

told we are better than them. Most of the managing directors are

Scottish so what can you do? I have worked here 26 years and this is the

first time it has happened to me. Starved in the back. Very angry

about this. It is not just 1000 jobs, it is 1000 homes. It is the

end of shipbuilding in Portsmouth so that is the end for me. One of the

hundreds affected is Jim from Portsea. I am going to my parents

house to let them know and then going home to see the kids. This is

my back garden. My entire life 33 years. Go and tell my mum and dad

the bad news. She'll go of her head. We've just been laid off. You've

seen it? We've just been told that workers finishing. Not building any

more. `` work is finishing. A lot of people are really unhappy

but the older boys ROK, it is only the shipbuilding side that is

affected. The time of year is rubbish, just before Christmas. Lots

of young families to support and take care of. The children grew up

here since they were babies. They have been told they are bad is

looking for the new job again. It will affect everyone. All my friends

and family and every local business around. Very sad. There are so many

jobs that are going to be lost on so many families affected. Absolutely

awful. This is their life here and it is all to do with Scotland and

money. It goes back hundreds of years, completely ruined now and

going to foreign labour. It is cutting the heart out. I understand

the impact of today's announcement on all other people in Portsmouth

and Glasgow. My primary focus along with all of my colleagues is to

minimise the impact of today's announcement as much as we possibly

can. BAE Systems said there simply weren't enough new orders to sustain

the current workforce. 940 staff and 170 agency workers would lose their

jobs in Portsmouth by the middle of next year. That's on top of 115

agency staff who were told last month that their shipyard contracts

were being terminated. The lives of port and city are interwoven, and

Doctor Dominic Fontana, who lectures at Portsmouth University, argues

that it's not the first time the community has had to adapt to the

changing fortunes of the shipbuilding industry. This isn't

the first time there's been a major change in the shipping. Over here,

we have an area of houses that used to be a shipyard until the early

1990s. It is no nice houses and we have a small fishing fleet. `` now.

This was one of the fortifications that guards at the entrance to

Portsmouth Harbour, a very narrow entrance, and there was a similar

tone on the other side. In between the two, there was a chain that used

to defend the harbour entrance. This is really the these in Portsmouth

this year. It is very defendable but in order to defend it properly, you

have to have ships. Here is an illustration of how much our

shipbuilding heritage has declined. From 42% of the world's new ships in

the 1950s to just 4% 20years on. As naval historian Duncan Redford

points out, our ships stood out across centuries of maritime

history. Portsmouth built a lot of very famous warships in its day. The

Mary Rose in its new ship hall was built here in Portsmouth, this

dockyard build HMS Dreadnought, the first big gunned battleship that

gave the name to the type of battleship that fought the First

World War, the navy's flagship at the battle of Jutland in 1916, HMS

Ironduke was guilt here in this dockyard the dockyard has built

battleships, destroyers, cruise ships frigates even submarines for

the royal navy and for commonwealth navies as well. `` was built here.

Duncan Redford says history teaches us that Portsmouth's fortunes can

travel full circle. Yes, the news is bad news for Portsmouth but behind

us we have HMS Duncan the future of the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy's

latest warship, built on the Clyde, but built from components that came

from Portsmouth dockyard and many other sites around the country. This

isn't the first time that Portsmouth has lost shipbuilding ` from the mid

1960s through to the late 1990s the dockyard did not build a ship for

the royal navy so what has gone could possibly come back in the

future, if there is a demand for it. Fundamentally BAE doesn't want to

spend enough money on the navy to justify the level of shipbuilding

sites that we currently have. Back at the fortified entrance to the

Fort, he recalled another occasion when Portsmouth stood firm against

adversity, a battle which claimed a flagship built here and now one of

the world's most successful visitor attractions. This picture shows us

what was going on in the invasion attempt of July 15 45. The French

are attacking England and it is the English fleet that is here and

defending Portsmouth from invasion by a huge French army. The port of

Portsmouth is absolutely crucial. 500 years of shipbuilding.

The first Royal dockyard was built in Portsmouth in 1212, 800 years

ago. The Mary Rose was amongst the first of the really big ships 500

years ago so there's an incredibly long tradition of building ships for

the defence of the UK. Portsmouth was shipbuilding in the sea and it

was an incredibly vibrant place with sailors coming home from the sea and

they had an incredible thirst. They were lots of breweries producing

huge amounts of air. It is all gone. `` air. During the Napoleonic

period, Portsmouth was lively but it was not the kind of place you would

call if you wear a gent he'll, nice person. It was a place you could

earn a very good living `` genteel. Of course many will remember

Portsmouth on the 5th of April 1982 when HMS Hermes and Invincible

sailed from here as part of a taskforce of 100 ships heading for

the South Atlantic and the Falklands war. Commanding the Ardent, which

sunk with the loss of more than 20 men, was Admiral West whose heroism

at the time was recognised with the Distinguished Service Cross. He says

the loss of Portsmouth as a ship building centre is directly due to

defence cuts and leaves the country dangerously exposed. Part of the

pressure on the yards has been that Our navy has been cut in size quite

dramatically. When I fought in the Falklands and was sunk there we had

over 50 frigates and destroyers, not counting aircraft carriers. In the

Defence Review 1998 which everyone regarded as best review for 40 years

` the view was we should have about 30 frigates and destroyers. We now

have 19 and everyone agrees pretty well that 19 is not enough for a

nation like ours reliant on the sea with interests all over the world,

95% imported by sea ` 19 is not enough. The biggest investor of any

European country in south Asia. A huge chunk of our energy coming from

our sea as well. Of course if you only have that number and you keep

scrapping ships and never ordering them, then it's very difficult to

have a warship building capability in the country ` and recently we

have type 45 destroyer ` six of those were built and we were going

to have 12. Instantly you have a problem. We had the carriers

building but no other ships building. To my mind, it's very

risky to our nation not to have sufficient capacity for building

warships ` by closing yards we close that option. When our country is

wealthier we will have to build up again. We haven't looked at this in

a strategic way. I believe there's a need for another stream.

I understand the commercial decision and BAE Systems have always wanted

to cause Portsmouth but I believe there less for another stream, and

that does not even take into account the problem with the Scottish people

decide to separate from the UK. We would then have two degenerate they

yard in Portsmouth `` regenerate the yard in Portsmouth, and we would not

spend ?7.5 billion on building ships in a foreign country.

But Richard Clayton from the consultancy group HIS is convinced

that the decision to move work to Scotland was not politically

motivated. I understand that BAE Systems made a strategic view and

took a commercial decision that one of these shipyards' ship building

facilities would have to close, now I personally don't think it was

anything to do with Scotland. I think it was a commercial decision

taken for commercial reasons ` that doesn't make it any easier to

accept. They've been saying for a long time that it's going to shut

down, it's going to shut down, but they've been saying that since I've

been in there and it's never happened before but basically the

way the government is at the moment and with money and budgets then it's

hard to find the money. They've just been told it's an extra two million

over budget or something, do you know what I mean? You can't answer

things like that. It's not acceptable. They went for a meeting,

came back and said, basically everyone go home today, you'll get

paid by BAE but carry on tomorrow as normal as if nothing's happened. How

can you do that? There's 800 men at work in the yard, how can we all

carry on as if nothing has happened? As the news sunk in, thousands of

people signed up to support a Facebook campaign ` Save Portsmouth

Shipyard ` calling on BAE Systems to rethink the job cuts. And a protest

march was rapidly organised. My feeling is I think it is a disgrace

and I think the Portsmouth people should stand and fight. Everybody! I

think it is the really a wrong decision and there is absolutely

wrong but I do not see any allies for us. I think Portsmouth has been

badly let down. The whole tone is coming out and it is about the tone

and the heritage. I am absolutely disgusted by the government. I

cannot believe they are closing down the only shipbuilding place in

England. The city has nothing except the dockyards. We do not think it is

fear of the government are picking on Portsmouth. It is our heritage

and her study and shipbuilding has been here for hundreds of years.

Really disappointed with Penny Martin because she works with Philip

Hammond and less as a decision that has been taken with BAE Systems and

the government and the a lot of people will be put out of work. That

is what we are here to show our support for, the workers, and for

shipbuilding across the country. We also feel for those in Glasgow. The

Conservative MP is a Royal Navy reservist. But she is in a difficult

position. Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond, she's

not allowed to speak about issues in Parliament. Archie says she believes

it might be possible to keep the open. `` at she says. We have got to

get orders in. I have been speaking to a lot of companies who are

interested in the yard and I'm going back to some companies that BAE have

turned down work for. We tried to get BAE to build a successor to

protector. There are companies that wanted double hulled vessels built.

BAE were not interested in that work. If we can find work either for

BAE to do, or, as is more likely, for other companies to do, that has

got to be our focus for those 940 individuals, some of whom might be

out of a job. Often you have people from the same family. We have got

generations of shipbuilders in this cut `` city. It is bad for the

country. We have got to retain the sovereign capability to build

ships, to build warships, and to service them. If this had not

happened, people would have said there was no concern. This rally is

the start of a lengthy process of trying to bring home to the

government and to attempt to `` BAE that people in the city do care

about it. People still believe they have been sold down the river by the

government on this issue over Scotland. They also believe this was

all done as part of the stitch up between someone micro and the

government over BAE taking the share of the cuts, the share of the

overrun but it on the aircraft carriers. Once that was done,

Portsmouth's fate was sealed. I don't believe the money is and

therefore shipbuilding in the country. It is just where they want

to go for cheap alternatives. I understand some of our ships are

being built in Korea. Why is that decision being taken? We have a 72

hours to think about it and take some of the story. It is important

to say that shipbuilding has been in decline in the UK for about 100

years. The heyday of British building was in the years leading up

to the First World War and immediately afterwards. Since then,

the French and the Germans and the Spanish and the Dutch and the

Scandinavians and all kinds of people have taken our business away.

Since then, the Japanese took a lot of business in the 70s, and then the

Koreans in the 90s, and then the Chinese in the past ten or 15 years.

If you add up the amount of shipbuilding that has taken place in

Asia, it is 80% of all ships on the construction. There is little left

for the European market. British building has been left with Pat,

nothing. `` practically nothing. The loss of Portsmouth is just the

latest in a long series of decline for British building. If you want to

build warships, if you want the country to have a sovereign

capability, you have to order warships. That is our problem. We

can't keep up with... We have the capacity but we don't have the

requirement for the number of ships that were used to. 30 years ago, the

number of ships being commissioned by the Royal Navy was approximately

3.7 ships per year. Today we are at 0.7. That shows you the massive

change that has gone on, and yet the capability to build ships hasn't

shrunk in order with the levels of decline in terms of sales.

Southampton has already been through the pain which now seems inevitable

for Portsmouth. The John I Thorneycroft shipyard at Woolston

was one of the city's major employers, delivering its first ship

to the Royal Navy, HMS Tartar, in 1907. It built scores of warships

for the First World War, and during the Falklands crisis experts from

Woolston played a big part in converting the liners Canberra and

QE2 into troop ships. But in 2003 came the shock news that Woolston

would close and the work would go to Portsmouth. Down the road I run.

Don't forget to show the path at the mine. But while I am dreaming and

going down memory lane, let us remember the company that is our

loss and Pompey's gain. We had been there from gone 100 years before the

bulldozers came and fought us to tears.

Nonetheless, ten years ago things were looking bright for shipbuilding

on the south coast as a newly`opened Vosper Thorneycroft yard in

Portsmouth prepared to work on orders to build the new Type 45

destroyers. Portsmouth has been in the spotlight for two reasons,

firstly the opening of this new shipyard, the first to open in the

UK for 60 years. We have competition. This facility puts the

company are strong position to compete desolate `` successfully.

Despite the optimism generated by work on the Type 45 destroyers,

there were even then signs of things to come. The original plan had been

for 12 destroyers to be built, but belt tightening meant the order was

slashed to just six. So Portsmouth faces a battle onto my

first front. Firstly it needs to track `` The battle facing

Portsmouth now is to attract new jobs and retain skills.

Iit shouldn't be forgotten that 11,000 people are still employed on

maintenance of ships, and the government has promised ?100 million

to develop Portsmouth as the base for the two new aircraft carriers.

But many say that's old money, and more is now needed to plug the gap

left by the demise of shipbuilding. Any major loss of jobs, first of all

you have to feel disappointed for the people who have lost their job.

940 direct jobs and possibly up to 2000 indirect jobs, it is a huge

economic blow to the region. This is not just people who live in

Portsmouth. This is a wider Solent region. Sometimes we focus on the

city 's directly affected. But it does affect the wider region. Off

the back of the Ford factory, this has been a bad couple of weeks for

us in this region. Government have to recognise that is any, priority

`` there is an economic priority. Just going home now to tell my wife

the bad news, and the children. Hopefully she will be OK about it

but maybe not. We will see. April next year, April, May, they up

closing the shipbuilding completely. No more ships being built. We are

all right for the moment but we have to look for something shortly. We

have just got to accept it. It is out of our hands. We have got to

make the most of it. It is known good being down. I have got four

kids. I can't come home depressed. I may feel down and crap, but you have

got to do what you have got to do. I have defined whelk `` work `` I have

to find work elsewhere. You have to be positive or you would just sit

there depressed. I don't want to go and sign on. I want to go out and

look for work. Shipbuilding is a very labour`intensive industry. It

is best done where Labour is cheap. For the Japanese in the 70s, they

found that their Labour was undercut by the Koreans. The Koreans have

been undercut by the Chinese. The Chinese are being undercut by the

Vietnamese. Wherever they go, there is always somebody else who once the

business `` wants the business for lower wages. It will be a

disappointment but we have to take `` come to terms that we don't make

aeroplanes or cars any more. Why is it any different that we don't build

ships now? It is important for us all to understand that British

shipbuilding started in places like Sunderland and Newcastle, Liverpool

and Barrow, Glasgow. All of those cities have had to learn to adapt to

new technologies when the shipbuilding industry went into

decline. The employees there have moved away into different site

tours. That they work at sea. Perhaps they work in the offshore

sector. `` perhaps they work at sea. They have had to adapt and I think

the people in of Portsmouth are going to have to learn to do that as

well stop `` as well. Daniel Defoe said in 1720 that when this war ``

there is war with France or Spain, Portsmouth becomes rich. It has

always been important to the city when there has been a need for the

Navy. Times of peace, when is a reduced need for the Navy,

Portsmouth has always suffered. This is part of an ongoing historical

process. It is a shame that 500 years of tradition shipbuilding is

coming to an end here. Certainly there have been times in the past

when shipbuilding has been at a fairly low ebb within Portsmouth.

But it has always come back. Whether it comes back in the future, I don't

know. Is this the end of an ancient tradition? The unions certainly hope

not. They have already begun pressing their case. In the coming

days, weeks and months, all sides will be trying to find a future for

English shipbuilding. We will be all right. We are from Portsmouth. We

have been through a lot in the past. Home is where the heart is. We will

be good. Hopefully. Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your

90-second update. A state of national calamity in the

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people. Millions have no