Queen’s Speech

Lord Bamford Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bamford (Con) (Maiden)]

My Lords, I am an engineer and a manufacturer—a manufacturer of construction and agricultural machinery. I have spent my whole life making things—things that enable other people to make still more things. On this occasion, I am happy to be making a speech, my maiden speech to your Lordships’ House. I am happy for many reasons, not least because it gives me an opportunity to thank publicly my sponsors, the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton, and the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, of Chingford, for their support, advice and friendship during my introduction to this House. They deserve all our thanks for their contribution to the national fabric, to British industry, to British culture, to British business, to British exports and to British life. They are an example to us all. To my great and noble friend Lord Shrewsbury and Waterford I extend my heartfelt thanks, not just for our lifelong friendship, but for his wise counsel as I enter this noble House. Indeed, I am looking forward very much to contributing to the work of this great House on behalf of the country whose success and well-being matter so profoundly to me.

Membership of this House is an extraordinary opportunity and a great privilege. My sense of gratitude is equalled only by my sense of responsibility. It reminds me of how I felt when, nearly 40 years ago, I had the good fortune to take over the reins of the company, JCB, to which I owe my presence here today, and so much else. That was in 1975. I was 30 years old and, as it happens, so, too, was JCB. It was founded on the day that I was born, in 1945, just after the war, by an engineer and inventor of genius—my father—in a 12 foot by 15 foot garage, in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. The Bamfords were blacksmiths in Uttoxeter in the 1820s; two centuries on, we are still there, only we do not shoe horses any more. We make diggers—lots of diggers.

Britain has changed since 1975. It has changed for the better in countless ways. It is a freer, happier and more prosperous country. However, some changes sadden me, and would indeed sadden and disturb any lifelong manufacturer. In 1975, manufacturing represented over 27% of our GDP; today, it represents just 11%. In 1975, manufacturing employed over 7 million people, more than 30% of the total workforce; today, it employs 2.5 million, less than 8%. In 1975, manufacturing contributed to a healthy balance of payments; sadly, this has been in deficit since 1984. These are concerning numbers for those of us who want a strong, vibrant, stable and balanced economy.

But I believe that there is much to celebrate about UK manufacturing. Britain has many world-class manufacturers, making innovative, high-quality and high value-added products. We have companies, in other words, that make products that the world wants to buy—small, specialist and world-class businesses, as well as much larger industry leaders, such as Rolls-Royce, GKN, BAE, Jaguar Land Rover and, yes, JCB, which exports 80% of its UK-manufactured products. So manufacturing still matters to the British economy. In fact, it matters a great deal. Financial services account for just 12% of UK exports; the figure for manufacturing is 46%. So manufacturing is neither dead nor dying. On the contrary, it is showing every sign of life, with clear potential in value-added industries.

I applaud the fact that manufacturing and engineering are back in favour with Ministers. I would simply emphasise that the support needs to be far-reaching and substantial. The Government are right to set their sights high; they are right to seek to double exports to £1 trillion by 2020. We must reverse the trade deficit that we have been carrying for over 30 years, but we will not get there without manufacturing or without a coherent, long-term industrial strategy.

The year 1945 was not just the year of my birth and that of JCB. It was also the year of Germany’s rebirth. Today, Germany is the world’s largest net exporter—not China, as you might expect. Is it any wonder that Germany has enjoyed a healthy balance of payments for many years? How did they do it? They did it in part by having a coherent, long-term industrial strategy and by focusing on high value-added products. They did it by spending more on R&D than we do—70% more. And they did it by backing their exporters. Over the past 10 years, Germany’s export credit agency backed 10 times as much export business as ours did. Germany did it by supporting family businesses under its Mittelstand model. We should do likewise in Britain, where family businesses provide more than 9 million jobs—far more than public companies.

Finally, and crucially, Germany did it by showing a real commitment to technical education. Technical education is a subject especially dear to my heart. I believe that we have a duty to identify and nurture young talent. That is why, in 2010, we opened the JCB Academy in Staffordshire. The academy is now giving 500 14 to 19 year-olds a hands-on technical education: 40% of their curriculum is devoted to engineering. They spend half the day in overalls working with state-of-the-art equipment, not just for the benefit of JCB but for British industry as a whole. Many of our leavers are now choosing higher apprenticeships as a sensible and practical alternative to university. We are creating real opportunities in industry for our young people. In recent years there has been much progress in the field of technical education. We need, however, to do more—much, much more.

I started my career as an engineering apprentice at Massey Ferguson in France. It was then that it first hit me that behind every product there is an army of talented creators, makers and engineers. Somebody somewhere designed, engineered and made these red Benches on which we sit, the lights by which we see each other, the microphones which help us to hear each other and the telephones in our pockets which keep us in touch with each other. We need more such people. We need more people like my father—more inventors and makers. We need their brains, hands, knowledge, creativity, design and technical skills and, most importantly, we need them to know that they are valued by society as a whole.

As a young man at JCB I came to realise how deeply rewarding it is to turn an idea into something that you can touch, something with form and texture which works and does things, and to use the best of yourself—your energy, know-how and talent—to make things that shape the world in which we live and, yes, even to contribute to human progress. Fifty years on, I am as excited by the making of things as I was at the very beginning of my career. I end where I began. It has been, and continues to be, a real privilege to call myself an engineer and a manufacturer and to be heard in this House.