Manufacturing and Engineering

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Tuesday 6th March 2012 Westminster Hall

[Neil Carmichael]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is at the nub of the issues I am coming to. I thank him for his intervention, and I am grateful for his support.

Lots of firms are supporting my festival of manufacturing, and I should name them because they are doing a huge amount. Renishaw is a fantastic engineering firm with factories in my territory. It is really innovative and good at coming up with new products, and it is determined to promote exports. Incidentally, it is also interested in the protection of patents.

There is also Nampak Plastics. One would not think that designing milk bottles was an engineering activity, but it is. Nampak has come up with a milk bottle that is incredibly handy in terms of getting it out of the fridge, but which also uses recycled plastic. Another firm is BPI, which is very effective at turning farm waste products, such as silage wrap, into raw materials for firms such as Nampak to use. WSP—formerly part of Milliken—is the world’s best manufacturer of tennis ball covering and snooker table cloth. It operates in one of the oldest mills in my constituency, and it is a fantastic firm.

There is also Omega, which is a great recruitment firm in the technology sector. I have already mentioned Airbus. Although it is in Filton, near Bristol, it is also supplied by firms in my constituency. That underlines the point that I made about supply chains. Finally, there is Delphi, which makes virtually all the injectors for large, heavy lorries, and it is in Stonehouse.

The policy areas that I want to talk about are straightforward. To begin with banking, I have already mentioned the need for responsive local knowledge, with more emphasis on the plan than on assets, and I want to ensure that the reform of banking, through the Vickers report, brings that about. We must be certain that high street banks and new banks, with new approaches to investment, will be more flexible, and more willing to take early investment decisions. I would suggest that anyone who does not think that is important should go to Germany and ask businesses there what kind of banking they have. They will say that it is exactly what I recommend, and that that is one reason why German firms get started and keep going.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

On that point, does my hon. Friend recognise that in Germany the top four banks account for some 13% of lending to businesses, whereas in Britain the figure is 84%? That gives an idea of the diversity of banking in Germany, which obviously has a more successful manufacturing sector than we do.

[Neil Carmichael]

That is right, and a good point, which underlines the one I was making. I like statistics that do that, so I thank my hon. Friend. We simply must make sure that we have that kind of range and opportunity.

I wanted to discuss planning. We need a cultural change in local authorities. They must start to think in terms of economic growth, as well as slapping up houses, so to speak. We cannot have them being awkward about business planning applications. I came across a good example yesterday, relating to investment in our super-broadband highway. Too often planning authorities stand in the way of the very investment that is needed, by being awkward about granting planning permission; that is something we must deal with.

Procurement is the next area I want to mention. There is another great firm in my constituency: DuroWipers makes the best wipers imaginable for battleships, or any ships, in really rough weather. They will not break. What does the firm want? It just wants better access to the big buyers such as the Ministry of Defence. We say that we want small businesses to have that access, and we must make sure they get it. DuroWipers is a good example of the kind of firm that would benefit enormously.

My hon. Friend the Member for Filton and—

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[Jeremy Lefroy]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is absolutely vital that this country maintains a major shipbuilding capacity, and that we cannot simply let it go?

[Jim Sheridan]

The reality is that we live on an island; we therefore depend on ships, not just to supply us, but to defend us. It is important that we invest in skills in shipyards, and that we get people back into working in shipyards. I was there when the shipyards were almost closed in Glasgow and Govan; if it was not for Government intervention, they would have closed. I am pleased that they are now thriving, but there is still some work to be done. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we need to invest in shipbuilding.

I want to touch on the issue of Europe. My other experience is of a situation that I found myself in with regard to the Ferguson shipyard, a very small shipyard at the tail of the bank on the River Clyde. That shipyard almost went out of business because of European legislation. Ferguson plays by the rules, as most British companies do; it listens to the civil servants who tell them what to do, while the French, Germans, Polish and others find ways—including by being economical with the truth—of getting shipbuilding contracts at prices that British companies such as Ferguson just cannot compete with. That is something that, from a European perspective, we need to find out about.

I spoke to the management of Ferguson at the time, who said quite clearly that bids for contracts were being tendered by Polish companies that were clearly using European objective 1 funding, and that under no circumstances could Ferguson compete for them; even if Ferguson would not make a profit from the contract, it could never have had any impact on the contract process at all. Again, we need to look at the legislation surrounding Europe, and see how we—and everybody else—compete within Europe, to make sure that we are operating on a level base and are not being sidetracked by people who are being economical with the truth.

The other issue that concerns me greatly—it has already been referred to—is the supply chain. Big multinational companies can survive, but the supply chain to those companies is crucial. I have found that small and medium-sized enterprises experience problems not just with banks—although the banks are important, in terms of lending money to make sure that companies survive—but with the paying of invoices by big companies. Those companies would hold money back from SMEs; the SMEs could not get paid. They therefore could not pay their bills and struggled to survive, or even went out of business. There is a responsibility on major defence contractors to treat the supply chain properly and pay their bills on time, so that we keep these small companies in business.

Rolls-Royce is an absolutely first-class company, and it is well organised, but unfortunately it has just announced, in my patch, that it is not taking on apprentices. That is somewhat disappointing, and we need to look at that, as do the Government. All of us have to consider why companies such as Rolls-Royce, which has an operation in Inchinnan, are not taking on apprentices. After all, Rolls-Royce is one of the leading companies in this country, and if it is struggling to take on apprentices, we need to find out why.

It would be remiss of me, as a Labour Member, not to mention employment legislation. I know that Government Members might disagree with me, but it is somewhat disappointing that a number of major companies left our island simply because it was cheaper to manufacture in the Czech Republic, China or wherever. A classic example from my patch is Hewlett Packard, which basically surrendered all its manufacturing base in Scotland and gave it to the Czech Republic. The workers in Scotland did nothing wrong. They were told, as we were all told, that if they worked hard, delivered on time, delivered quality, and so on, their jobs would be safe. That was what they did. That was the deal: “We, the workers, will work hard and deliver on time, to make sure that the product gets there on time, and on cost.” As for Hewlett Packard, some director sitting somewhere in Texas decided, “No, we can get this work done in the Czech Republic,” and that is what the company has done.

That story takes me back to my point about employment legislation. I know that people have different views on employment legislation, but it is far too easy for companies, particularly multinational companies, to say, “I’m sorry, we can get it done in another country”—wherever that country is—“far cheaper,” and exploit the labour in that country. That is why we have lost, and are still losing, a lot of our manufacturing base. Putting politics aside, we need to understand why manufacturing companies can easily up sticks and move.

It is annoying that after Hewlett Packard transferred that manufacturing base to the Czech Republic from Scotland, the company applied to the Scottish Government for a £7 million grant—and got it, which was rather foolish of the Scottish Government, in my view—to set up a call centre in exactly the place where the manufacturing operation had been. I disagreed with that at the time. The company was transferring manufacturing and we were losing all those skills, and then we as taxpayers gave a multimillion-pound company £7 million of taxpayers’ money to set up a call centre in exactly the place where its manufacturing operation had been.

Those are just some of the issues that I feel strongly about. I am passionate about manufacturing. I genuinely believe that if we do not have a strong manufacturing base, this country will be in a serious state. Again, I must say that I am somewhat disappointed in the turnout for this debate. I had hoped that there would be a lot more people interested in manufacturing. Perhaps we politicians need to look at how best we can get people with a manufacturing background, or a sense of manufacturing, involved in politics. I do not want to be discourteous, but I do not just mean business people in manufacturing; I mean people who have actually worked in manufacturing, and who have a feel for it. That will help to ensure that we go forward as a manufacturing nation.

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[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Clark. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael) on securing this extremely important debate.

My first job after university was as a production foreman with Ford in Bridgend. I am delighted that that factory, 30 years on, is still there. In fact, Ford recently announced a £240 million investment in that engine plant. At the time, it was supposed to be the most efficient engine plant in the world. I believe it is still one of the top ones. The UK has a major role in manufacturing engines not only for the motor industry, but for all types of vehicles, including, for instance, construction equipment, which I will come on to later.

I have been passionate about manufacturing from the start of my career. I welcome the comments made by all Members who have spoken so far. In the past couple of years, there have been major announcements of investments, particularly in the motor industry. As has been referred to this morning, there has been a very welcome announcement by Nissan in Sunderland. There have also been announcements from: BMW in both Oxford and Hams Hall in Warwickshire, near the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White); Toyota; Honda; and Vauxhall. Of course, there is also the welcome announcement that Jaguar Land Rover is building an engine plant at the i54 site, close to my constituency. The UK is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of engines for motor vehicles.

In my constituency, the largest employer in the private sector is Alstom, which employs nearly 2,000 people. It is the only remaining transformer manufacturer in the UK. It is extremely important for the UK electricity supply industry and beyond, as it is involved in manufacturing in the transport and other sectors. I also have in my constituency Perkins, a part of Caterpillar, which makes very large engines to power generators around the world. Some 90% of production in my constituency is exported. As hon. Members have mentioned, manufacturing is by far the greatest earner of export revenue in this country; our manufacturing sector accounts for 54% of our exports.

I absolutely endorse what my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington said: we need a long-term manufacturing strategy in this country. I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I want to highlight a report from the chairman of JCB, Sir Anthony Bamford, called “UK Manufacturing: Time to Make it Count”. I received it yesterday, which was timely. I recommend that every Member and every Minister reads it, because he makes very powerful points. He has the right to do so, because his is a private company employing several thousand people in the UK and 10,000 in total around the world. It is constantly investing in the UK, instead of choosing to outsource manufacturing to perhaps more convenient places. It continues to invest in people, plants, and research and development here in the United Kingdom.

Hon. Members have already covered much of the scene. I know that others wish to speak, so I will concentrate on two or three areas. On skills, it has already been mentioned that not enough women are going into engineering. In this country, the figure is something like 8.7%; in Germany, it is nearly double that. We can see the results in German manufacturing industry. We need to encourage more people, particularly women, to go into engineering and take it up, not only at degree level, but at apprentice level.

I want to concentrate particularly on finance. I have already referred to the fact that in Germany companies have a far wider range of banks from which to choose. Reference has been made to Handelsbanken; I welcome its growth in this country, because it is committed to this sector, but I want to see more local and regional banks and more mutuals—something to which Sir Anthony Bamford refers. As my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris) mentioned, in our area, the Black Country Reinvestment Society is steadily growing and committing funds to local manufacturers.

We have already heard about this country’s export credit guarantee scheme. It is a good scheme, but not nearly good enough. Over the past nine years, Germany’s equivalent scheme has advanced or guaranteed eight times more finance than the UK has done, and the results show. We must do more on export credit guarantee. It is not just a drain on the Treasury. People pay for insurance, and it allows them to get from the Government the backing that they cannot get from commercial markets.

That is particularly relevant if we consider where the world’s growth areas are. Six of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa. Anyone who goes there now, as I do frequently—I lived there for 11 years—will see huge opportunities. Just last month, when I was in Kenya as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I was delighted to see products by JCB and other British companies; I had not seen that there before. There are huge opportunities, and we neglect them at our peril.

I would like to comment on the provision of equity finance. We in this country are poor at equity finance. I welcome the fact that the banks have set up the business growth fund, which should not be confused with the regional growth fund. The business growth fund is like a renewed 3i—Investors in Industry. However, I urge the banks to consider a slightly lower threshold. At the moment, they are considering investments of £5 million or more, and businesses with a turnover of £10 million or more. Many smaller manufacturing businesses would welcome investment; in fact, they are the ones with potential for growth. I urge the banks not to say that it is too expensive to consider smaller businesses, but to see them as an opportunity.

To return to the question of ownership, we in Britain seem to be good at giving away ownership of our manufacturing businesses. As the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Jim Sheridan) said, the problem is that however competitive the UK is, if a company is not headquartered in the UK, it will not have the emotional pull to invest here—an emotional pull shown by JCB, for instance, which is headquartered here. I am not saying that we should not encourage foreign investment—we welcome it—but at the same time, let us build up home-grown major manufacturing businesses like JCB, Rolls-Royce and others that have been mentioned.

My final point concerns energy costs. There has been a lot of debate in the House recently about energy-intensive companies, working in areas such as steel, ceramics and glass, which are vital to this country’s manufacturing base. I welcome the Government’s recognition of that importance, but we must ensure that we do not unintentionally cause those industries to migrate overseas as a result of things such as the carbon price, which will come in next year. We can be sure that they will not reduce the amount of carbon that they produce. In fact, in the places to which they go, they might be allowed to produce more carbon. Those industries in Britain have a proud record of cutting their carbon emissions over many years, and I give the last Government credit for that.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

As vice-chair of the all-party energy intensive industries group, I would like to comment on that point. I am late for this debate because I have just met Tata Steel, which has a £50 million cost disadvantage in the UK compared with its French competitors as a result of energy prices—and that is now, before various other measures have come into effect. I totally support my hon. Friend’s comments about energy costs.

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[Jeremy Lefroy]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for saying that. Considering energy costs should be part of a long-term Government approach to manufacturing, and I welcome the chance to raise the issue in this debate.

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[Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Clark. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael) on securing a timely and excellent debate, and I agree with a lot, if not all, of the points that have been raised.

There was a similar debate on manufacturing on the Floor of the House in November. I mentioned at the time that we do not debate manufacturing as much as we should in the House. However, we have had two debates on manufacturing in the space of about 100 days, on top of an important speech that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition is making, even as we speak, on the case for patriotism not protectionism in business policy, to the first ever manufacturing conference of the EEF, which the hon. Member for Stroud mentioned. They are testimony to the belief that manufacturing and engineering have to play a central role in our economic future, and policy makers are waking up to that.

A thriving and diverse manufacturing sector, in which British firms design, innovate, engineer and simply make things, is vital if this country is to pay its way in the world. I hope this debate has shown that manufacturing still plays an important role in the British economy. Hon. Members have quite rightly highlighted manufacturing excellence in their constituencies. We remain the seventh biggest manufacturing nation on earth. We have the largest aerospace industry in Europe and the second largest in the world after the United States. That is something to be proud of, and something that we need to nurture and support as much as possible.

The automotive industry has been mentioned a number of times in the debate. Nissan’s announcement today is very welcome news. Once, the British car industry and the phrase “British Leyland” were the epitome of all that was wrong with British industry—it was uncompetitive and obsolete. Now, however, our automotive industry is one of the most productive in the world, and we should be proud of that.

However, let us be honest: we have relied far too much on far too few sectors and too few regions in this country for economic growth. In the past three decades, Britain lost more industrial and manufacturing capacity as a proportion of its economy than any other leading developed nation. As has been mentioned in the debate, the hollowing out of the UK’s industrial supply chain over the past 30 years has made us ever more reliant on our competitors for raw materials, basic products and increasingly, as the likes of China and India move up the value-added chain, innovation, and research and development.

We therefore need a much bigger push towards manufacturing. I was struck by the comments made by the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy), who mentioned Sir Anthony Bamford, the chairman of JCB, and his report. Sir Anthony knows a thing or two about industry. His warning last week to the Prime Minister is stark:

“Germany’s focus on value-added products sets it apart. It has a manufacturing strategy which the UK doesn’t. If our politicians fail to deliver a coherent long-term manufacturing strategy, and quickly, we will fall into an economic abyss from which we may never emerge.”

That is absolutely right. The whole House needs to pull together in unity to ensure that we have a long-term economic vision with manufacturing at its heart in order to see the jobs and wealth that this country needs.

My first question to the Minister is: what is the Government’s response to Sir Anthony’s report? He made a nine-point plan to boost manufacturing and engineering, including increasing capital investment by tax incentives, expanding the Export Credits Guarantee Department to ensure that we export more, encouraging more banks to set up in the UK to boost competition, and improving in general the public image of manufacturing through media campaigns. Will the Government implement in full Sir Anthony’s recommendations?

Other senior industrialists have echoed that view. Sir John Rose, the former chief executive of Rolls-Royce, has said:

“We need a framework, or a business route map, to create context, drive focus and help prioritise public and private sector investment.”

I absolutely agree.

John Cridland, the director general of the CBI, stated in a speech in November:

“What’s needed is a new form of industrial policy, one that signals ambition, helps develop future capabilities and secures sustainable growth…A new understanding needs to run through all of Government. Industrial policy might be based at the Department for Business, but all Departments need to share the same ambition. They all need to work to join up policies and create a system that’s more than the sum of its parts.”

Again, I absolutely agree with that. We need a more joined-up and co-ordinated approach, not just in the Department for Business, but across Whitehall. The nub of much that I want to say today is that we do not have a joined-up approach to manufacturing and engineering in the Government.

It is not just senior industrialists who are calling for clarity; the Business Secretary is lobbying hard on the matter, as was seen in a letter that he wrote recently. He said:

“There is something important missing: a compelling vision of where this country is heading beyond sorting out the fiscal mess; a clear and confident message about how we will earn our living in the future.”

I could not agree with the Business Secretary more, but I fear that the joined-up approach that is being called for by the CBI and other industrialists is simply not happening.

The Government’s sole economic priority is deficit reduction. I fear that if we cut too far and too fast, far from allowing private sector enterprise to bloom, we will choke off competitiveness and undermine our manufacturing base still further. On the one hand, the Government stress the importance of science, research and development and innovation as a means of supporting our manufacturing and engineering base, but on the otherhand unlike any other developed nation in the world, they are cutting the science budget by 15%. The Government stress the importance of an industrial strategy in defence to help British industrial capability, but at the same time they have published a White Paper that prioritises the purchase of off-the-shelf, sometimes foreign, military equipment. That is why the director general of the CBI, in responding to the White Paper, urged the Government not only to get the best value for taxpayers but to

“take into account employment and industrial implications of decisions.”

My hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Jim Sheridan) mentioned the awarding of contracts for Royal Navy fuel tankers to South Korea. What was the Department doing when the process was going through Whitehall? Why was it not working with the British supply chain to ensure that UK companies could bid for such contracts? Why on earth did the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, the hon. Member for Mid Worcestershire (Peter Luff), allegedly say:

“We don’t build tankers in the UK”?

Who on earth is batting for Britain in Whitehall on major procurement decisions if that is the attitude of Ministers?

Several hon. Members mentioned the importance of procurement, and they are absolutely correct. Governments can help shape markets—the Government are often the biggest customer and can often drive innovation and competitiveness. It is frustrating that the Government are not using procurement and the power that they have to back British business and support jobs, skills and innovation, and therefore enhance British competitiveness. I agree with the TUC, which stated that the UK should have a

“procurement policy guided by the principle that every pound of taxpayers’ money should contribute to jobs, skills or the strength of the British economy.”

Yes, procurement should be based on securing best value through competition, and sometimes some British firms will lose out, but let us have a procurement regime that looks at value in the widest and most effective sense. I quote again the TUC, which said that

“a procurement regime that is simply based on lower cost, offering nothing to the long-term development of the British economy, has no place if our industries are to reach new levels of competitiveness.”

We saw the debacle of the Bombardier decision on buying trains; let us not have the same mistake again. Let us ensure that our business policy emphasises manufacturing, but also ensures that we can back British business—patriotism is not protectionism.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I am following very carefully what the hon. Gentleman is saying. Does he agree that if we allow our capacity to build ships or trains to disappear, we will be held over a barrel by other manufacturers around the world because we will not have an alternative at home?

[Mr Wright]

I agree absolutely with the hon. Gentleman. Many people accept, quite rightly, the importance of not being too reliant on foreign sources of energy; that is why we need to ensure that we have a diverse energy policy. Frankly, we need the same approach for manufacturing—we should not be too reliant on our foreign competitors. We need a vibrant steel industry and a vibrant shipbuilding industry to ensure that we have that capacity, and that we produce the next generation of ships and use steel for offshore wind—that is exactly what we need to do.

Let me turn to another important issue, which I mentioned in an intervention on the hon. Member for Stroud: the tie-in between manufacturing, engineering, the wider point about business and schools, and our education system. If we are to see engineering and other STEM subjects rise in cultural importance, it is vital that engineering qualifications have at least parity of esteem with more liberal arts-based subjects. That is why, as I mentioned in my intervention, the decision of the Secretary of State for Education to downgrade the value of the engineering diploma from the equivalent of five GCSEs to just one is simply wrong.

In the previous Government, I was the Minister with responsibility for 14 to 19 reform and apprenticeships. I had responsibility for the engineering diploma, so I feel protective towards it. It was, and is, a high-quality and rigorous qualification that has the support of business and backs the interests of many of our brightest young children. The downgrade is the wrong move if we are to promote engineering. Do not take my word for it. Dr Mike Short, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, along with 16 senior industrialists, put his name to a letter to The Daily Telegraph that said:

“The Engineering Diploma is widely recognised as a significant route to providing the crucial technical and practical skills that young people will need to build a Britain that can compete effectively and internationally where technology can make such a difference to our digital world. Industry and the professional engineering institutions have worked extensively to make this 14-19 qualification a highly robust and attractive qualification, which now appears to be being undermined by the Government's premature decision to downgrade its worth.”