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.

 

 

Updated July 2012

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