UK Calls for Manufacturing Industry Boost

Business leaders have pressed the case for a bigger manufacturing base to help tackle challenges such as climate change as well as boosting the economy.

The Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) said manufacturing should be at the centre of a more diverse and durable economy.

A report called for a new industrial bank to invest in industry as well as a National Economic Council to help deliver improvements.

The growth of sectors such as aerospace, medical equipment and energy will be vital if the UK is to provide the solutions to climate change, demographic shifts and future security needs with domestic manufacturing capacity, said the EEF.

Chief Executive Gilbert Toppin says: "Manufacturing must play a bigger role in our economy if we are to meet the challenges facing us over the next decade. It can be a major player in addressing climate change and meeting our demographic and security challenges as well as helping to claw back the twin deficits in the public sector and on trade.

"But this will only happen if our manufacturers show the ambition and make the investments needed to achieve this and the government sets out a framework that gives them the confidence to do it. In particular, the government must set out its priorities for the technologies and markets we need to develop and the steps it will take to help the UK succeed in them."