Manufacturing

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

I congratulate and thank the hon. Members for Hexham (Guy Opperman), for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White), and for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) and my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) for securing the debate. I have been greatly encouraged by the quality of the debate and the consensus across the Chamber. It gives me some hope that manufacturing does have a future after all.

This country has a wonderful manufacturing heritage, and the constituency that I represent in Derby was the cradle of the industrial revolution. It is home to the world’s first factory, and to Rolls-Royce and Bombardier—the railway industry has a great heritage there. Just outside the city there is Toyota, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, car manufacturer in the UK today. We have a great manufacturing base, a great heritage, and a great reputation in this country, and particularly in Derby, for high-tech manufacturing skills. Promoting manufacturing as an occupation of first choice for our young people is key. We need to do more to encourage young people with skills to go into manufacturing rather than the service sector or finance, as they have done.

I was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s commitment to rebalancing the economy in favour of manufacturing industry, and was particularly pleased when he brought his Cabinet to Derby to emphasise that commitment, but there was a rebalancing of the economy in the 1980s. The Government of the day turned their back on manufacturing to some extent and used financial services—the big bang in the City—as an alternative engine of economic growth. We were fixated on the financial services industry for far too long, and when the crash came we were overexposed as a consequence.

The Government have recognised, perhaps rather belatedly, the importance of manufacturing, and it is important that they demonstrate their commitment to it. I reiterate a good point made by the hon. Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson), who is the new treasurer of the all-party group on aerospace—I am its newly elected secretary, so we are certainly singing from the same hymn-sheet on that issue—about research and development. As the autumn statement approaches, it is absolutely key that the Chancellor seizes the opportunity to demonstrate the Government’s commitment to manufacturing and aerospace.

The UK is the second biggest aerospace centre in the world. If we are to retain that position, the Government need to demonstrate their commitment to aerospace through investment in, and support for, research and development. Although Rolls-Royce has its roots in Derby and is the city’s largest employer—indeed, in the past 12 months it has recruited 900 additional members of staff, which is extremely welcome news—it is, in the end, a global company, and has factories in all four corners of the world. We must not be complacent, and I reiterate the point made by the hon. Member for Pendle on research and development.

The other thing the Government must get right is procurement. I cannot contribute to a debate such as this without mentioning the Government’s decision to appoint a German company as the preferred bidder to build the Thameslink rolling stock, rather than Bombardier. It is not too late to revisit the decision, as they are only at the preferred bidder stage and, despite Minsters’ protestations to the contrary, the invitation to tender documentation gives the Secretary of State the opportunity to stop the process and retender. There is no reason why the retendering process would take two to three years, as he has suggested, because the procurement of new trains before and after privatisation was carried out in just six months.

I urge the Government to reconsider their decision, even at this late stage, because although smaller contracts will hopefully come Bombardier’s way, such as those for Southern trains and the eVoyager carriages, we could still lose the ability to design trains in Derby, and if we lose that we lose the ability to design trains in the United Kingdom as a whole. Winning those two smaller contracts might put off the day when Bombardier pulls out of the UK, but it might not secure the train-building industry long into the future. It is absolutely key that the country that gave the world the railways continues to be able to build the trains that run on British railway lines.

Hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber, myself included, have mentioned globalisation. Globalisation can be a threat or, as I prefer to see it, an opportunity. We need to seize the opportunities presented by growing markets in China, India, Brazil and other parts of the world. Although we should not seek to compete on low wages, we should seek to be ahead of the game when it comes to the high-tech skills that this country has in abundance. We must nurture those skills and invest in them through research and development and investment in education, by encouraging young people to go into manufacturing and by looking not only at the opportunities available through support for our railways, aerospace and other existing industries, but at climate change as another opportunity. Engineering skills could be the salvation for tackling climate change and creating huge new employment opportunities in our country through geo-engineering solutions, which are being spearheaded by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

I am fairly optimistic and delighted at the cross-party support we have seen today. I hope that Government Members will use their influence to persuade the Government to invest in research and development and reconsider their decision on the Thameslink rolling stock programme.