Staffordshire ceramic industry 'faces collapse' as famous Moorcroft Pottery closes after 100 years
The ceramic sector in Staffordshire is “on life support”, ministers have been told as MPs called for more support for energy-intensive industries.
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Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central Gareth Snell said the Government was promising “jam tomorrow” but that “jam is no good if you’re dead”, as he claimed jobs in the industry were “falling away every month”.
Moorcroft Pottery in Mr Snell’s constituency announced its closure on Wednesday after more than 100 years following warnings of potential redundancies in March.
During an urgent question in the Commons, energy minister Sarah Jones referred to a range of government schemes targeted at energy-intensive industries which Mr Snell said “do not apply to the ceramic sector and do not apply to great swathes of the energy industrial sector as a whole”.
Mr Snell told MPs: “We are constantly promised by the last government, as well as this one, jam tomorrow. Well, jam is no good if you’re dead and the ceramic sector in Stoke-on-Trent is on life support.
“We are at a point now where good manufacturing jobs done by proud people are falling away every month. This is not new. This started in 2019 with the closure of Dudson, Wade in 2022, Johnson Tile in 2023, Royal Stafford and now Moorcroft in 2024.
“The energy-intensive industries in this country are pivotal to manufacturing. If we see them fall away, then manufacturing in this country will fall away.”
