The importance of manufacturing to the regional economy

By Managing Associate, Vicky McCombe at Womble Bond Dickinson.

As the UK’s largest manufacturing employment centre, manufacturing in the Leeds City region is worth over £7.7bn annually, highlighting that the region is intrinsic to the UK economy.

Understanding the potential for prosperity in the sector and region, one of the key priorities for the LEP and West Yorkshire Combined Authority  is to boost growth and productivity in the sector and, by 2036, its Strategic Economic Plan is to grow the manufacturing sector in the region to £100bn.

Like the LEP and West Yorkshire Combined authority, Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) is committed to the prosperity of the manufacturing sector in Leeds. With over 200 years’ combined experience advising manufacturing businesses, we are fully embedded in manufacturing and understand the issues affecting the sector.

Earlier this year, we hosted a roundtable with leading figures in Yorkshire’s engineering and manufacturing sector, exploring key issues faced to the industry in the region. The key message from this debate was clear: that the onus has to increasingly be on businesses themselves to highlight to schoolchildren the positive benefits that the sector offers in terms of pay, job security and the potential for a long-lasting career.

The message reflects key findings from a report WBD supported in 2018, where we partnered with key industry body EEF (now Make UK) to research public perceptions of manufacturing in the UK. We wanted to understand and tackle misconceptions of manufacturing, to ultimately help bridge the skills gap and encourage gender balance in the sector.

The findings of the research showed us that the public do see that manufacturing provides enormous value to the UK economy, with almost three quarters of people (70%) agreeing that the UK cannot tackle future problems without a strong manufacturing sector. However, it also acknowledged that the ‘skills gap’ continues to be one of the key issues facing the sector, as is the need to encourage more girl school leavers into STEM careers.

In light of this research and our commitment to manufacturing in the region, we are proud to be supporting the Leeds Manufacturing Festival this year, aimed at celebrating the sector in the region and addressing many of the challenges highlighted in our perceptions report with Make UK.

The festival is being organised by the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance, supported by West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, and looks to bring greater awareness of the depth of career opportunities that exist within manufacturing in the region. It provides young people, career advisors, teachers and parents with a better understanding of what modern day manufacturing is all about, and therefore dispels some of the myths and misconceptions of the industry.

As a sector that has so much potential for the Leeds City region, it comes as no surprise that there is a huge amount of support for manufacturing from both government initiatives and local businesses. With the greatest concentration of high-value manufacturers in the UK and with many of the changes in the sector being driven by technology – another sector booming in the area – the Leeds City region is well-placed to achieve the ambitious growth plans set out for manufacturing.