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The Campaign
UK Manufacturing employs three million people directly, with two million more providing services for manufacturing. With their families, that’s 10million people – more than enough to ensure the message gets heard.
The new government will either salvage or savage UK Manufacturing. Our competitive balance versus Europe and Asia has become dangerously delicate for a nation deep in debt. The wrong decisions now could take manufacturing beyond a return to prosperity.
These are some of the stark warnings delivered by industry leaders at The Future of UK Manufacturing Summit (www.ukmanufacturingsummit.co.uk), held on 4 March at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ London headquarters.
The Vote Manufacturing campaign has been created to take these discussions forward. At the heart of the Vote Manufacturing campaign are five priority actions vital for manufacturing businesses and their employees.
ACTION ON LONG TERM LEADERSHIP:
Turning the nation’s back on manufacturing industry has put the entire economy in deep danger. If our manufacturers exported 10% more and we bought 10% less from manufacturers overseas, the annual balance of payments would improve by £45 billion. That’s more than the entire financial sector now contributes and enough to create a positive payments balance that could remove £200 billion of debt in 10 years. No other business sector offers such great potential for restoring UK prosperity.
ACTION ON CULTURE CHANGE:
Parents, students, teachers and the media need to understand that manufacturing growth is essential to the UK’s economic health. Thousands of our engineering and manufacturing businesses are world class, hi-tech and offer exciting career choices that remain unrecognised. Government can change the national culture through joined-up leadership by ministers in education, business and the community, particularly schools.
ACTION ON ENGINEERING SKILLS:
Retirement, redundancy and higher salaries in finance and consultancy have eroded our technical skills base. A shortfall in qualified staff will prevent manufacturing growth and success within a decade. Our education system must adapt right now. Numeracy, literacy and practical skills must be improved in schools. Programmes for vocational and academic education must integrate to deliver the skills manufacturers need. If the necessary talent is there, more manufacturers will be too. Only government can make it happen and progress is far too slow.
ACTION ON INCENTIVES AND TAXES:
Government procurement must become much more effective in generating innovation, manufacturing and employment. Too many complex initiatives for investment and innovation are spread too thinly among too many organisations. Banks are still setting excessive constraints on loans to manufacturers and a Bank for Industry should be set up. Taxes should favour investment in manufacturing and should also attract start-ups and overseas companies to set up new UK factories.
ACTION ON ENERGY COSTS:
Artificially high energy costs disadvantage many UK manufacturers. High users not only find it difficult to compete, but their extra costs move through their customers and down the supply chain, harming many more companies. Having allowed our main energy utilities to become foreign owned, government must act to ensure pricing is fair.
According to Vote Manufacturing Campaign Director Ed Tranter: “After a period of enormous economic change within the UK and the wider world, manufacturing has never been more important. “With economists and politicians of every type agreeing that manufacturing is the key to a balanced and successful economy, the stage is firmly set for deciding how we get there.”
Ask your MP how they plan to support the manufacturing sector.
Make your MP work for manufacturing.
10million people need these policies to work now!