From its inception in April 2020, my Campaign for a Minister for Manufacturing has gained great traction thanks to the supporters who continuously share and comment on the Thursday 10.00am LinkedIn posts, who discuss the potential benefits with their contacts and colleagues and generally, publicly support our call for an experienced and passionate advocate for engineering and manufacturing within government.
For years, we’ve had a number of career politicians placed into roles within departments in which they have no experience or expertise.
Pledge your support for a Minister for Manufacturing.
And even for those who show an interest or willingness to engage, a quick Cabinet re-shuffle can undo months or years of hard work we’ve spent influencing and educating the said minister into the real needs of the industry and the businesses within it.
This repeating cycle has led to a loss of support and recognition for the industry as a whole, and the contribution we make to the economy is often forgotten.
For decades, we have been talking about skills shortages, the lack of cohesion within the industry and how support funding is generous, but the help is not being received by those who need it the most. Nor is the message getting through to those who can change the current state of play. We do not have a representative within government who can be our voice, who will challenge what doesn’t work, and who will campaign for a long-term, robust, cross-party industrial strategy.
The positive changes we do see are most often driven by the large OEM’s who have the power and influence to demand change, but unfortunately, quite often, their suggestions are not applicable or appropriate for SME businesses, leading to the support landscape we now see which feeds many mouths, but rarely positively impacts productivity profitability within the SMEs it’s targeted at.
In many cases, it’s quite the reverse, particularly in capital equipment funding when (to qualify for grants) you must show increased headcount, rather than the reduced headcount you’re hoping for by improving your technology and increasing automation.
And then of course, we have skills – the single biggest barrier to growth this industry has experienced for decades. The apprenticeship levy has halved the amount of apprenticeship take up and the attrition rate exacerbates the shortage due to the poor quality of training offered by many providers.
I am no one important, I have no influence or political affiliations. I am simply a director of Hone-All Precision, a specialist SME supplier of precision machined, tubular components and someone who believes that you cannot complain about a situation or scenario unless you’re willing to try and change it!
As I mentioned earlier, my campaign is LinkedIn-based and I post an update every Thursday at 10.00am other than at Christmas time and when I allow myself the occasional holiday. There has been a little confusion over the years as the title has changed a couple of times, but this was for good reason.
I started campaigning for a minister, then a commissioner. BEIS then indicated we had more chance of a minister, so we changed it back and finally, we are now campaigning for a ‘Champion for Manufacturing’ based on feedback from supporters who were disillusioned with anything ministerial during the previous government.
Thankfully, despite this, we’re seeing more mentions and calls for a Manufacturing Champion than ever before.
A number of organisations and businesses have joined the campaign, including the Confederation of British Metalforming, the Made In Group and Crowe Accounting to name but a few, but the united voice and call for a hero for the engineering and manufacturing sector, alongside the need for a robust and long-term, cross-party industrial strategy are resoundingly being shouted from several sectors, and numerous groups.
People often ask why I do this and thanks to the traction we’ve gained, it’s now easy to say why… because if my Thursday posts on LinkedIn generate just one conversation that changes anything in a positive way for the industry, then I’m happy and the effort is worthwhile.
For decades, we have been talking about skills shortages, the lack of cohesion within the industry and how support funding is generous, but the help is not being received by those who need it the most. Nor is the message getting through to those who can change the current state of play.
I believe I cannot complain about an issue unless I’m willing to try and change it and as a result, I’ve volunteered on many boards, associations and steering groups over the last 25 years and yet here we are, in 2024, still saying the same things.
It’s frustrating but it doesn’t mean we stop asking or challenging for what we need. Manufacturing is a major contributor to the UK economy and the latest figures from Make UK state that the industry contributed £217bn in output last year and supports 2.6 million jobs. But that’s only half the story. There are then a wide range of businesses benefitting from the manufacturing industry in support, services and supplies.
The industry also invested £38.8bn last year and is responsible for almost half of all the R&D in the UK.
And still, we do not have a representative within government who can be our voice, who will challenge what doesn’t work, and who will campaign for a long-term, robust, cross-party industrial strategy.
Labour has promised they will be developing and expanding upon their manifesto-based industrial strategy, but we have not yet seen any timeline nor any commitments to what depth of detail and industrial, strategic collaboration it may offer.
I can simply hope that they, and their business relations team, are hearing the multiple calls for a manufacturing champion or minister and like the appointment of the Prisons Minister, it will be someone who knows, loves and wants to lead the industry into a period of productivity, profitability and prosperity!
For anyone agreeing with this , please, e-mail your trade association, your membership or networking group, and of course, your local MP, and ask for the appointment of a dedicated, experienced and passionate professional we so desperately need to be our advocate within the halls of power.
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