Manufacturing: Economic Policy

Lord Razzall Excerpts

Wednesday 4th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

My Lords, there were many questions in there and a great deal of good information too. Perhaps I should say that I agree with an awful lot of what the noble Lord has said and see whether that helps me. We are aware that we should look at tax and all the other things which hold back business, and we are doing so all the time. It is important for us to make the United Kingdom Europe’s leading exporter of high-value goods and related services, and anything the noble Lord can do to encourage and help me I will listen to.

[Lord Razzall]

My Lords, bearing in mind that the clear objective of Her Majesty’s Government, as has been articulated by the noble Baroness, is to rebalance the economy away from financial services, particularly in London and the south-east, is she concerned about today’s statistics indicating that growth in manufacturing is now slowing?

[Baroness Wilcox]

My noble friend has read the same newspapers as me this morning. I think he is referring to the purchasing managers’ index, which suggests that there is a slowing of the growth rate in orders and output although it remains positive. What has been slowing is consumer spending at home and, in some ways, it is difficult to say that people should go out, get themselves into further debt and spend just to help our industries. The most important thing our industries can do is to make sure that we have the right skills and the right people doing the right jobs. The fact that we are doing so well at exports is the one thing that is absolutely glowing ahead for us.