Pottery sector support 'being looked at urgently'

The government is "urgently" looking at how it can support Staffordshire's pottery industry, the energy secretary has said.

Ed Miliband said the sector was facing "particular challenges" due to global events causing an increase in fossil fuel prices.

Several ceramics firms have collapsed in the wake of rising energy costs, including Stoke-on-Trent-based Royal Stafford and Moorcroft, though the latter has since been bought by the grandson of its founder.

During a visit to Rocester on Thursday, Miliband told the BBC that ministers were seeking to address some of the issues in the upcoming industrial strategy.

"It is something we are urgently looking at," he said. "We do understand some of the challenges the ceramics industry is facing.

"It's a really important industry, really important for this area and we want to do everything we can to help."

The Labour minister put the rising international gas prices down to the "rollercoaster" of recent global events and said it was why his "mission for clean power" was so important.

His comments came after Industry Minister Sarah Jones spoke of the importance of the ceramics industry and how the government wanted to support the sector.

"We know they've been struggling with a number of different challenges and we want to see if we can maintain and support as much as we can," she said.

Miliband's visit came as the government announced it was expanding sits Warm Home Discount to 2.7m more households, including 270,000 in the West Midlands.

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