Ahead of Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, ALFED, Alupro and Make UK brought together leaders from across the UK aluminium industry for a private roundtable lunch with Blair McDougall MP, the new Minister for Reindustrialisation, Toby Perkins MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, and Dame Nia Griffith MP.
The discussion was held under Chatham House Rule, so we will not attribute individual comments or views. But there is plenty we can share about the substance of what was an important and timely conversation for our sector.
First and foremost, we were grateful for the opportunity to put aluminium directly into the reindustrialisation conversation at such an early stage in the Minister’s new brief. Blair McDougall was appointed Minister for Reindustrialisation in July, with responsibilities spanning Industrial Strategy implementation and sectors including advanced manufacturing, automotive and aerospace.
It was particularly encouraging to have a discussion with a Minister who came to the table clearly well briefed on aluminium, the challenges facing the sector and its importance to the industries Britain wants to grow. There was a genuine sense of engagement with the detail – not simply with aluminium as a material, but with the industrial ecosystem around it and the conditions needed to retain and grow that capability in the UK.
What does reindustrialisation actually mean?
Perhaps the most important question running through the lunch was also the simplest: what does reindustrialisation look like in a country that has spent decades deindustrialising?
That question became especially tangible around the table.
A number of the businesses and industry representatives present reflected that they are now effectively the last of their kind in the UK – the remaining operators in areas where Britain once had significantly greater industrial capability.
Reindustrialisation cannot only be about attracting the industries of tomorrow. It must also ask what capability we still have today, what we are at risk of losing, which strategic gaps need rebuilding, and what conditions will allow companies already investing and employing people here to compete and grow.
The UK still has an established aluminium ecosystem spanning recycling, remelting, processing, rolling, extrusion, finishing, distribution and manufacturing. The briefing prepared for the discussion highlighted aluminium’s role across defence, aerospace, automotive, clean energy, infrastructure, digital technologies and advanced manufacturing, alongside its recognition as both a Critical Mineral and Growth Mineral.
The conversation therefore moved beyond simply asking how we “protect” industry. It considered how the UK creates the conditions to invest, innovate, modernise and build capability again – and how we ensure that reindustrialisation is felt in industrial communities and supply chains across the country.
Energy remains fundamental
Unsurprisingly, industrial energy costs were central to the discussion.
For aluminium businesses making long-term investment decisions, the issue is not energy prices in isolation but the UK’s competitiveness relative to other locations. Members around the table were able to bring that reality to life through their own operations and investment decisions.
The briefing highlighted the strategic implications of persistently high industrial electricity costs: they weaken the investment case for UK production, electrification and modernisation and, over time, risk shifting production, skills and capital elsewhere.
The message from industry was therefore about more than short-term relief. If Britain is serious about reindustrialisation, it has to create an internationally competitive environment in which industrial businesses can make the case for their next investment here.
Turning circularity into industrial capability
We also spent considerable time discussing one of aluminium’s greatest opportunities: circularity.
Aluminium can be recycled repeatedly without losing its inherent properties, while recycling requires up to 95% less energy than primary production. But being highly recyclable does not automatically create a circular UK aluminium economy.
The discussion explored the significant volumes of valuable aluminium leaving the UK, the need for better understanding and traceability of material flows, investment in sorting and processing technology, and the importance of creating viable domestic markets for high-quality recycled aluminium.
Crucially, this is not as simple as “keeping all scrap in Britain”. Different alloys, grades and applications have different requirements, and international trade remains essential to the sector. The opportunity is to become much smarter about the material we have: understanding what it is, where it goes, where UK capability could add greater value to it, and what investment would enable more of that value to remain here.
That makes circularity an industrial strategy issue as much as an environmental one.
Reindustrialisation and decarbonisation must work together
Another important theme was the relationship between rebuilding domestic manufacturing capability and delivering the UK’s environmental ambitions.
There was a strong discussion around the danger of reducing domestic emissions simply by moving industrial production – and therefore the associated emissions – overseas while continuing to consume the same materials in the UK.
The challenge for policymakers is therefore to create conditions in which the UK can manufacture and recycle strategically important materials competitively and progressively decarbonise that production.
For aluminium, there is a considerable opportunity to bring those objectives together: retaining valuable material, expanding recycling and remelting capability, investing in technology and supporting lower-carbon domestic production.
From recognition to action
One message came through particularly strongly for us: recognition matters, but what happens next matters more.
The aluminium industry already makes a substantial contribution to the UK economy. The briefing for the lunch puts the industry’s wider economic footprint at £8.18 billion GVA and 104,800 jobs. Aluminium also sits behind many of the sectors the UK’s industrial strategy is seeking to grow.
So, the question now is what recognition of aluminium’s strategic importance translates into in practice: on energy, investment, trade, circularity, regulation, infrastructure and domestic productive capacity.
There was also an important reminder that reindustrialisation cannot mean isolation. UK aluminium supply chains are deeply interconnected with European and global markets. Strengthening domestic capability needs to sit alongside strong trading relationships and the efficient movement of the materials and products our members need.
What was encouraging about the lunch was the opportunity for a genuinely detailed conversation between policymakers and the people actually making investment and operational decisions in UK industry.
For those of us representing the aluminium sector, it was particularly valuable to have that conversation with the new Minister for Reindustrialisation so early in his tenure – and to find such a strong level of understanding, curiosity and engagement with the sector.
There is no pretending that rebuilding industrial capability after decades of its erosion will be quick or easy. But there is an enormous difference between managing decline and making a conscious decision to rebuild.
Our job now is to make sure aluminium is part of that rebuilding – and to turn a positive conversation about reindustrialisation into the practical conditions that allow businesses to invest, compete and grow in the UK.
Our thanks to everyone who joined the discussion, and to ALFED members, Alupro and Make UK for bringing the industry together. We look forward to continuing the conversation with government and, importantly, turning it into action.
