UK Government told: Set out a clear investment strategy or risk manufacturing talent “brain drain”
Experts urged the Government to introduce a clear industrial strategy to support UK manufacturing and show willingness to invest in small business
66% per cent of MakeUK members state that new trading arrangements have hampered business since 1st Jan, UK Trade and Business Commissioners heard
Fewer manufacturing jobs in the future if the government fails to help businesses adapt to the UK's new trading environment
Industry experts have urged the UK government to pursue a more holistic approach to investment in manufacturing, including a nationally sustained programme and long-term strategy, to prevent the sector from becoming a “brain drain” for talent.
At a live evidence session of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission today, chaired by DUP MP Paul Girvan, witnesses explained that the UK has the necessary resources to secure large scale manufacturing projects but the government’s limited understanding of global supply chains, short-term investment and an absence of industrial strategy has created a precarious position for the sector.
This position has become even more fraught since the UK’s exit from the EU, with new changes to the trading environment negatively impacting supply chains, and new red tape adding extra barriers to businesses. During the session, Richard Rumbelow, Director of International Trade and Member Relations at Make UK, who represent 22,000 firms across the country, told the cross-party group that 66% of his members were already reporting that new import checks brought in this month were hampering their businesses.
The commission also heard how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) were being particularly impacted despite playing a fundamental role in both supplying the domestic market and in exporting, with witnesses urging the government to simplify processes for them. The UK Trade and Business Commission have previously made recommendations to the government to reintroduce and expand the criteria for the SME Brexit support fund which was scrapped in June last year.
Witnesses also warned that the UK’s reputation for innovation would be threatened without a long-term vision, and a failure to adapt to new technologies and trading environments would lead to fewer manufacturing jobs in the future.
Dr Carmen Torres-Sánchez, Reader in Multifunctional Materials Manufacturing, Executive Director, Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence, said
“If we don’t have the manufacturing sector and neighbouring technologies, we’re going to educate people for them to go back home…and flourish elsewhere. It’s a brain drain.”
Jack Semple, Manufacturing Technologies Association, said
“If we look at the Made Smarter programme, what's needed is a national sustained programme and what we’ve had is a regionally restricted piecemeal drip feed.”
Simon Collingwood, Head of External Affairs & Communications, AMRC Sheffield, said
“For me, it comes back to what is that industrial strategy, is this something our government and our regional players, our regional governments want to back and support? Because I think there is potential for large scale manufacturing in the UK but I think that there is a step before that which is, what is the industrial strategy?”
Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain, secretariat to the UK Trade and Business Commission, said
“Calls from industry to government are clear, a coherent industrial strategy is needed to support and protect British manufacturing as it adapts to our new trading environment, or run the risk of far fewer jobs in the future.”
