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Labour Conference An Industrial
Policy for the 21st Century: Engineering Growth in
Britain (Engineering the Future fringe meeting)
Monday 27th September in
conjunction with SMF
Chair:
Ian Mulheirn, Director, Social Market Foundation
Speakers:
Kate Bellingham, STEM Ambassador
Jane Atkinson FREng, Vice-President, SembCorp
Utilities
David Kester, Chief Executive, The Design Council
The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP, Shadow Industry Minister
 Approximately 32 attendees
attended our fringe meeting. Majority were party
delegates and stakeholders.
The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP
opened the debate by saying ‘the last Labour
Government came late to the idea of a formal
industrial policy, due partly to a concern that such
a policy would appear to hark back to past Labour
policies’.
He followed this up by talking
about how to rebalance the economy – key issues
highlighted were:
-
the tax regime must
support investment;
-
focus should be on new
high-tech manufacturing – there have been
massive improvements in our traditional
manufacturing base, with substantial investments
in plants/materials by the key players eg:
Nissan, Ford. NB: the Sheffield Forgemasters
issue was an attempt to pick a future winner,
not a politically-motivated subsidy; the company
is unique in Europe;
-
investment in low carbon
initiatives – eg: £60m fund for windpower;
-
deleterious impact of the
immigration cap;
-
skills – the number and
quality of apprenticeships must improve. The gap
in demand for apprenticeships must be filled;
-
High Education – tough
decisions ahead. Widening participation remains
a challenge;
-
Removing the RDAs is a
mistake. 57 organisations chasing a smaller pot
of money will increase bureaucracy and reduce
effectiveness – too obviously politically
motivated. Coherent regional strategies are
essential.
David Kester, Chief Executive
of the Design Council made the following points: The
Design Council has worked with over 3,000 UK
manufacturing firms in recent years. The UK has
extraordinary science & engineering companies and
the largest design economy in Europe.
The biggest challenge facing
the UK economy is the need to become more flexible
and to demonstrate a willingness to change – China
and the other ‘new’ economies have a key ability to
leap frog.
Companies must understand and
commit to customer focus in all that they do and
engineer themselves into new markets (eg: Apple). A
new industrial policy must put the consumer first,
in all markets, from manufacturing, to IT, to
health…. The UK education system has too strong a
silo mentality, it needs to embrace new structures
and modes of learning.
Government must use
procurement to bring in small firms, stimulating
innovation.
Kate Bellingham, STEM
Ambassador said: Engineering is vital to the
ambitions of UK;
Engineering is vital to the UK economy and is a
prestigious career opportunity;
Quality and depth in UK skills are vital to
engineering;
Engineering is the future – need to reinforce the
message that studying science and maths widens your
opportunities;
Must increase the numbers of women engineers.
Jane Atkinson FREng,
Vice-President, SembCorp Utilities provided an
overview of the Engineering the Future
vision:
-
Investing in skills for
the future;
-
Making the UK a leader in
low carbon technology;
-
Capitalising on the value
of the UK science and engineering research base;
-
Harnessing the power of
public spending to encourage innovation;
-
Making greater use of the
engineering advice in policymaking.
Manufacturing is not in
decline; it is changing and growing. Government
needs to talk the engineering language – she
highlighted the need for a chief engineering
advisor.
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