Industrial Strategy

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Chris White

Thursday 20th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris White]

I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution, but I gently suggest to him that that slightly misses the point. It is just one element of an industrial strategy.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris White]

I would be delighted to give way, so long as the hon. Gentleman keeps to the subject.

[Mr Sheerman]

Is Germany the only model that the hon. Gentleman is examining? The challenge that we face, with only 10% of our people in the manufacturing workforce, is that with a smart bit of kit it is possible to manufacture anywhere in the world. That is a wonderful opportunity. Does he not think that Germany is an outdated model to follow?

[Chris White]

With the economic advances in our technology and with institutions such as the Warwick Manufacturing Group and other such groups, including in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, we need to invest in research and development to make sure that we maintain the cutting edge and lead in those technologies.

Central Government, or perhaps more accurately Whitehall, generally responds well to objectives and targets, which provide focus and concentrate minds. A cohesive document would allow the public and business to hold the Government to account. Debate would be unavoidable and long-term consensual policy would prevail. The document, or statement, would lay out policies to support manufacturing for the medium term—around 10 years, say—giving clear objectives for the economy.

[Chris White]

The Government should intervene before a sector is failing. We always seem to miss the problem when it occurs, which makes it much more difficult to resolve, not least in some of our strategic industries.

The Government need to state how they intend to achieve their objectives through a long-term framework. Although it is recognised that manufacturing does not make up the majority of the economy, it can be seen as a driver for other sectors in respect of efficiencies, processes, skills, exports and so on. It requires more explicit planning than other sectors, which can be seen as interdependent, with the state playing a more active role. This should not come, however, at the expense of creativity or productivity, and it should assist rather than hinder.

One of the most consistent calls from manufacturing has been for the Government to articulate a long-term commitment to the sector and to give an indication of the policy framework they are likely to operate in the medium-to-long term. That should be a rolling document, updated regularly and taking into account fluctuations in the wider global economy and in the sector in the UK. It should be debated in Parliament to provide transparency and accountability. It should address a wide range of challenges. How effective is the British Business Bank in terms of access to finance? What capital is required to radically change manufacturers’ investment decisions? Can incentives be created to encourage business to invest? What progress is being made with green manufacturing?

Education is a vital component of the strategy. There is currently little planning associated with supporting the development of STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering and maths—in primary education, which is a major factor in creating the skills gap the industry is now experiencing. Those subjects are the bedrock of degrees and apprenticeships, but they are left to the latter stages of education—often too late to influence a child’s decision-making process.

[Mr Sheerman]

Does the hon. Gentleman know that tens of thousands of young people in further education colleges up and down our land are desperate to get into apprenticeships, but they cannot, because they cannot get their GCSEs in English and maths? When will the Government introduce a practical maths GCSE to unblock that blockage? Will he persuade them to do that?

[Chris White]

I will leave the Minister to answer that question in his remarks.

In a truly global trading nation, more provision should be made for studying languages. What is the number of children at school studying Chinese or Russian? How can it be improved? A welcome manifesto commitment—the hon. Gentleman has touched on this—was to increase the number of apprenticeships to 3 million by 2020. How are we going to take down the barriers that prevent that from happening?

Infrastructure is an essential part of the strategy, not least in improving the quality and reliability of supply chains. That should include the comprehensive development of a digital infrastructure that is fit for purpose. Other elements of the strategy would, of course, include an energy policy, procurement, immigration, export—including the role of supporting bodies such as UK Trade & Investment—catapult centres, research and development, through-life engineering services and the wider contribution from Whitehall.

Social enterprises may not be the first issue that springs to mind in this context, but they are a sizeable part of our economy. The positive impact social enterprises have on local communities is of huge value, and it is through an inclusive approach to shaping our industrial strategy that such sectors can be supported.

Vocational Qualifications Day

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Chris White

Tuesday 9th June 2015 Westminster Hall

[Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and to follow the excellent speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller).

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael) on securing this important debate and on raising vocational education’s profile in Parliament. I cannot claim to have been a college principal, but I can claim to have studied a BTEC ordinary national certificate in engineering, which is probably as rare as hen’s teeth in this place.

[Mr Sheerman]

It may not be as rare as my vocational qualification. I failed my ONC at the City College in London, but I passed intermediate paint technology.

[Chris White]

I do not think there is any possible response to that.

As a result of my background, I am a passionate supporter of further education. Warwickshire College, whose headquarters are in my constituency, is one of the best such colleges in the country. It has six centres across Warwickshire and Worcestershire, with more than 15,500 students attending each year. It offers more than 1,000 courses across 20 different subject areas, including management. It has the highest enrolment among 16 to 18-year-old students and one of the highest success rates among larger FE colleges in the country.

To its credit, the college has developed strong links with employers. As result, it trains more than 1,750 apprentices every year in a variety of sectors, from agriculture and farriery to construction and digital media—an area that colleges are beginning to embrace with open arms. The college offers a broad range of courses and subject areas, and it is, importantly, addressing two national skill shortage areas.

Capital investments of more than £10 million mean that two important projects—in horticulture and engineering—will be completed by September, ready for students attending from the start of the academic year. As part of the college’s expansion and development, a new engineering building is being constructed at Warwick’s Trident College. The new complex will comprise specialist engineering workshops, 12 teaching labs, three computer labs and three specialist, tailored engineering technology labs. The aim is to create the capacity to meet demand for an additional 285 advanced and 253 higher apprenticeships in the manufacturing, mechanical, electrical, electronic, automotive and product-creation sectors, providing skills the country desperately needs.

There have been fantastic achievements in terms of the number of students who progress directly into higher education, although that is not the essential goal. To mention just a few examples, the number in agriculture is 95%; in construction, it is 94%; and in computing and IT, it is an astonishing 99%.

As parliamentarians, we must discourage the perception that further education is a second-tier choice—to be taken up only if one’s first preference has not been achieved. In fact, FE is quite the reverse. Many students now see the benefits of a practical and vocational education that provides them with the skills and real-life work experience they need to get on.

Links with business are key for the FE sector. Businesses can recruit from colleges, but they can also help them financially and practically as they tailor courses to the needs of business and the wider workforce. For the last 18 months, for example, the college has been involved in the trailblazer apprenticeship scheme, which allows employers—in this case, Jaguar Land Rover—to partner with the college to reform apprenticeship frameworks and ensure that they are the best training for future employees. In engineering, the college also has links with more than 40 small and medium-sized enterprises, with the aim of increasing that to 65.

Nationally, support from the Government is essential. The Government have done a great deal over the last five years to invest in vocational education. Two million apprenticeships were started during the last Parliament, and I fully support the aim of delivering 3 million by 2020. Businesses can also support vocational education. As I mentioned, encouraging them to partner with colleges and other FE providers benefits all concerned.

We must work hard to ensure that vocational education’s contribution to the economy is more widely acknowledged and that there is appropriate recognition for vocational education. We must commit to working towards parity of esteem between vocational and academic qualifications by continuing to raise the standards and promote the benefits of vocational education.

Social Economy

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Chris White

Tuesday 2nd September 2014 Westminster Hall

[Chris White]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Days such as Social Saturday will create great momentum. It is something we should consider having yearly. I still maintain that we have work to do. As suggested, one piece of work is to put these issues strongly and firmly in our manifestos, so that these organisations can feel confident that they will continue to have the support and investment they need, whoever forms the next Government.

[Mr Sheerman]

We must of course ensure all the major parties get this in their manifestos. However, there is one small danger with accessibility: we create our own language in the social economy. It can sometimes be a bit cosy. People outside do not understand things and have to fight to get in. The reason I like the word “crowd” is that it is a new way of expressing an old idea: that the crowd is empowered. I ask the hon. Gentleman to use “crowd” with “social” when he talks about accessibility.

[Chris White]

The hon. Gentleman always talks great sense.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, the former Minister, for his support with respect to the direction of travel that social value has taken. I look forward to the comments of the new Minister, who has picked up his responsibility with alacrity. I look forward to a commitment from him to growth in the area we are considering; an increase in its momentum and an extension of its scope; and attention to reviews, which would be helpful and appreciated.

National Citizen Service

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Chris White

Wednesday 16th July 2014 Westminster Hall

[Chris White]

As chair of the all-party group on the National Citizen Service and volunteering, I would welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support. Does he not think that this issue would also benefit from cross-party consensus?

[Mr Sheerman]

As the hon. Gentleman said, he works well with me and I hope he can work with me on the much more ambitious programme that I am going to talk about today. Nothing I am going to say today is negative about the existing National Citizen Service programme, but I want to finish my analysis. I believe that we have become a very different country. More and more people are living in cities and towns, with fewer people living in the countryside. There are real problems with the mobility of young people—getting off their estates, travelling, and getting away from their sometimes troubled environments.

I would like to see an open discussion about the possibility of having a much more powerful National Citizen Service, because we are in a time when democracy is under threat. When I asked that particular question of the Prime Minister, the other thing I said was that, 10 days before, only 36% of people voted in the European elections and even fewer voted in the local elections. Interestingly, if we look at Europe, even countries that are so keen on getting democracy had levels of involvement of 19%.

It is worrying for Europe and for our country that there is a disengagement from politics. All of us, when we are out canvassing, or in different parts of the country—in my case, trying to persuade the people of Scotland to stay in the Union—hear too often that the perception is that democracy does not make any difference because we are all the same. I think we need citizenship, because it will get to the root of that kind of attitude.

Manufacturing

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Chris White

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con)]

Thank you very much for that warning, Madam Deputy Speaker.

May I, too, start by thanking the Backbench Business Committee for securing time for this important debate? As co-chair of the Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group, alongside my friend the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), I have a particular interest in this area of policy. I was pleased to hear from earlier speakers who were able to bring their own experience to this debate, for example, my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) and the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle). I am also pleased that Westminster is being visited today by the leader of my local district council, who also has a background in manufacturing industry. Perhaps it would not hurt too much if more Members of Parliament had a background or personal experience in manufacturing, engineering or industry itself.

If we do not secure both a rebalancing of our economy towards manufacturing and growth in the sector, the UK will be very much the weaker, not least in my constituency, which is home to names such as Ford. Things have changed very much over time. My area has one major manufacturing works; the reason why we no longer have soot on our food is because Flavel, which won an award at the Great Exhibition, managed to change that by an innovative process and, to this day, the factory is still producing cookers in my constituency.

As the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) said, we need to look forward. What does a prosperous manufacturing sector need? It needs a large skills base, a strong communications network, a focus on exports and the opening up of new markets. There has been progress on the first point. In Warwick and Leamington, we have 210 additional apprenticeships compared with last year. Great thanks must go to places such as Warwickshire college for managing to secure that.

Young people need to be encouraged to make a positive choice to take up careers in manufacturing. As the hon. Member for Huddersfield said, if that is to happen, design and technology must play a much greater part in our schools. We need to build on it through our entire education system. We cannot just wait until young people are 16 before they begin thinking about careers in the sector—it should thread right through our education system.

We cannot afford to fall behind other countries in this vital area. We should be under no illusion: competitors like China and India will be doing more, not less, to educate their young people in those subjects. The national curriculum is under review and I hope that the Department for Education will consider the importance of design and technology for the future of our economy and work with organisations such as the Design and Technology Association to ensure that D and T remains at the heart of the curriculum.

I believe that if we are to see long-term progress for manufacturing, we need the Government to be at one with the sector as a whole. Given the importance of manufacturing to our economic future, it makes sense that, as has been mentioned, the Government should create a dedicated Minister for manufacturing, and I would support the creation of such a Minister.

[Mr Sheerman]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that if that Minister for manufacturing was linked to a clear long-term strategy for manufacturing, that would be even better?

[Chris White]

I very much agree. A Minister and a strategy could go hand in hand.

We need a strategic vision for manufacturing, with measurable targets of success so that we can see how our efforts at rebalancing our economy make headway and whether more needs to be done to help the sector. A Minister for manufacturing, tasked with creating a cross-departmental manufacturing strategy with targets and measurement tools to plot success or failure, would be a good start.

The Government, for example, could make it their goal to boost manufacturing to 15% of our GDP by 2015. This “15 by 15” target would send a powerful signal and boost confidence in the manufacturing sector as a whole. The mere creation of a Minister and a strategy will not bring about growth and jobs, but it will signal the Government’s intent, give manufacturers a voice in the decisions on economic policy, better co-ordinate Government manufacturing policy and ensure that manufacturing is properly considered across all Departments.

The UK is now the ninth biggest manufacturer in the world, unfortunately down two places on the previous year. We need to recognise that although we need to promote high-tech manufacturing we cannot ignore the rest of the industry. To quote a recent report,

“‘low-tech’ does not mean ‘low-value’”.

A Minister with responsibility for all manufacturing could ensure that it was not ignored and that we had a strategy in place that benefited all manufacturers.

If we are to remain at the forefront of manufacturing globally, businesses need to be able to access the funds that they need to compete and grow. I therefore also support the creation of a bank for industry, similar, perhaps, to the green investment bank. We should not be content to allow Britain to slip down the league any further and we should make it our goal to climb back to the top of the table.