My go to scheme for 'one thing the HMG could do' is loosely based on the 'buy back' scheme that the British government had in the early 2010s for cars
But focused on ship building
It has several aspects to it
Firstly the ship fleets
Due to WW1 a large number of ships having been sunk and effectively replaced with the then 'tramp steamers' of the day meant that the fleet 'estates' were relatively young in 1930.
This means that those ships had a decade or 2 of life left in them even though they were of what we might consider to be an obsolete and slow design
So there was little incentive for the shipping companies to purchase newer, modern larger and faster ships - what they had was not the best but it was good enough
This means that there is also little incentive for ship builders to modernise their infrastructure when sales are slow and no one is interested in buying 'newer, modern larger and faster ships'
The other issue is 'infrastructure' being early to the game of building Iron Boats meant that the ship yards had grown up and subsequently been surrounded, some would say hemmed in, by the rail transport and housing estates.
This had 2 issues.
New larger modern buildings had no space to be built (necessary for more advanced machinery etc to be used as well as more efficient working practices)
Longer slipways for 'newer, modern larger and faster ships' could not be constructed - again due to lack of space.
And then more modern practices such as wielding etc - why bother and with the industry in decline etc there would be little appetite and for various reasons I can see the unions seeing any such initiatives as a threat to their members.
So....
The Government introduces their buy back 'scrappage scheme' and incentives for ship yards to modernise.
Shipyards are provided with - tax breaks, grants etc in order to modernise their ship yards.
This generally involves reducing the number of slipways by turning them 45 degrees - allowing fewer but longer slipways and freeing up land for larger buildings etc
The ship designs they would build would be for the 'newer, modern larger and faster ships' which would use more modern construction (including wielding) and more modern better machinary.
In addition the government would incentivise/fund training/retraining for modern skills such as wielding at those yards that modernise (this would be part of the agreement)
The buy back scheme would initially be for any ship over a certain age - if the owning shipping company agrees to purchase a 'newer, modern larger and faster ship' from one of the modernised ship yards then the government agrees to buy the older ship with the important provision - 'they will not sell it on' - as why would the shipping company agree to sell their ship if a competitor simply buys the older ship and can potentially under cut them on certain shipping lines?
The Government either sell it to a scrap merchant to be broken up or for those ships in better condition kept as a reserve merchant fleet (remembering the losses of WW1) only to be used in time of War or crisis.
This scheme would through incentive achieve several goals
- Modernise the Merchant fleet
- Modernise the Ship Yards
- Modernise the ship building skills
- Increase the number of ships being built
- Decrease the number of ship yards having to close
- Decrease the number of workers on the dole (and through extra taxes/less out of work men being supported by teh government and society)
- Create a reserve Merchant fleet for times of woe
This scheme to be started in the late 20's should start to bear dividends in the early 30s and as an unexpected bonus help the industry over the slump of the Great depression.