North West manufacturing: Long-term strategy needed for investment
ON the one hand, the government is looking to the manufacturing sector to help lead Britain out of recession, with the much used phrase “export led recovery”, but on the other it has put no long-term support measures in place to help the sector address some very key issues, one of the most pressing being skills succession.
That was the view held by manufacturers around the table at TheBusinessDesk’s debate, hosted at DLA Piper’s offices in Manchester.
Event attendees got hot under the collar when it came to discussing government action – or lack of it – in creating the best environment for manufacturers to prosper.
Most agreed that our government’s short-term approach to the big issues puts all businesses at a serious competitive disadvantage.
The Manufacturing Institute’s Adam Buckley said: “Unlike Germany we don’t have a long-term manufacturing strategy. It has got to survive the politics.”
Peter Brook, partner for DLA Piper in Liverpool, added: “All companies would have a strategy, without that how can you follow a path and know where you are going?
“That’s the difference between here and Germany. Here we are always looking to the next general election. If we had a 20 year strategy people would invest. What else do they do that we don’t? They value engineers.”
Stephen Wolfe of Conductix-Wampfler suggested that apprenticeships were one area where there had been support.
Buckley agreed: “They are targeting activity around apprenticeships,” he said, adding that there was a recognition in government that the industry is facing a huge retirement wave, without the required numbers of skilled workers coming up behind the baby boomers to fill the gaps.
Kellogg’s has had apprenticeship schemes and student internships at its Trafford Park plant for many years.
Chris Ainsworth, operations manager, for Kellogg’s, said: “The recruitment of talent is important, particularly given this time bomb of retirement wastage. We want to encourage manufacturing as a career choice, as food technologists and engineers. The skills shortage is one we need to address.”
Jonathan Watkins, partner at DLA Piper in Manchester, suggested that if investment in apprenticeships was to be encouraged, the government should offer tax breaks.
Gordon Oliver, finance director at commercial flooring firm James Halstead plc, added that the tools are already in place for the government to help businesses.
He said: “The system is there. If they want to encourage getting a lower age group of workers then give a tax break for it. We’ve got a whole tax system to guide companies and it’s not being used.”
