‘Reshore’ to the UK, urges Cameron

A SCHEME to help companies bring production back to the UK has been welcomed by a leading manufacturing organisation.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has joined forces with the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) to launch Reshore UK, a new one-stop-shop service for businesses considering repatriating their production facilities, call centres and the like.

UKTI has identified 1,500 manufacturing jobs re-shored in the UK since 2011 and a MAS survey shows companies citing costs, quality and reducing lead times as the top three reasons for moving production.

Reshore UK will provide a matching and location service, access to advice and support and a named individual to help each company. MAS’s role is to help support small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to be globally competitive and to ensure there is capacity in the UK supply chain to take advantage of the reshoring opportunities.

The plan will be reinforced in a speech by Prime Minister David Cameron today.

He will say: “As part of our long-term economic plan, I also want us to help businesses bring back production to Britain. This new service will offer dedicated support for businesses that want to capitalise on the opportunities of reshoring, creating new jobs and ensuring that hard-working people can reap the benefits of globalisation.”