WORKERS at Southampton shipyard Vosper Thornycroft (VT) have scored a major success in boosting their campaign to win a vital slice of a £6 billion Royal Navy contract.

The government and the Ministry of Defence will be forced to recognise the quality and productivity levels of the city workforce following the official handover of the latest Woolston built minehunter, HMS Blyth.

After a meticulous assessment of the new vessel by MoD inspection staff, the minehunter achieved the standard of zero defects, one of the few ships to reach this high level of quality.

This could not have come at a better time as the Campaign for South Coast Shipbuilding aimed at ensuring VT is awarded work on the new Type 45 destroyer gathers pace.

The government will now find it difficult to turn its back on this degree of workmanship, which together with the yard's present productivity levels, only underlines the claims put forward by the campaign which is backed by Southampton and Portsmouth city councils, trade unions, industrial organisations and local communities.

Work-starved employees of VT are fighting to keep shipbuilding in the region in the face of a bid by rivals, BAE Systems, to persuade the government to build the new destroyers at its yards in Scotland.

VT shipbuilding managing director Andrew Bunney said: "HMS Blyth is the third Sandown class minehunter built by the yard to achieve this prestigious hallmark.

"We believe that she is the best we have built in terms of quality and productivity.

"In addition, when we won the contract to build seven Batch Two Sandowns we set ourselves demanding cost targets. It is extremely satisfying to note that we have also achieved these milestones.''

VT, one of the world's leading shipbuilders in composite materials, has built all 12 of the Sandown class with the latest ship due to be launched in April.

"The Sandown class programme has shown how competition can deliver equipment faster, cheaper and better, and we believe that this should be a strong consideration when the MoD decides on procurement strategy for the new Type 45,'' said Mr Bunney.

The final ship in the class, HMS Shoreham, will be more than 90 per cent complete when she is launched next month, enabling VT to fulfil a long-standing promise by holding the pre-launch dinner on board the night before.