MotionTouch’s manufacturing sector post budget survey

In last month’s budget the chancellor spoke about the “March of the Maker”, he was clear that he was targeting UK manufacturing as a key driver in a new UK rebalanced economy.  MotionTouch have spent the last few weeks talking to clients and other UK manufacturing companies about the chancellor’s vision.  This has been done both informally and with a formal survey.

Depending on which data you believe the sector is worth about 1.5x GDP compared to financial services, it accounts for many more multiples of jobs.  I have long held the view that financial services sector is much better organised with its PR activity and political clout, manufacturing needs to catch up.  I recently had a conversation with an ex minister for trade who lamented the sectors inability to make a strong case for itself, in our small way we are trying to add to the debate.

Key questions that MotionTouch raised were whether the chancellors expectations for manufacturing were realistic and if he had done enough?  Feedback was split almost evenly on the chancellor’s vision, manufacturers who already export felt more inclined to agree that he is being realistic in his targets.  One the question as to whether the government has done enough feedback was again varied.  Common themes across the sector were about the lack of trade finance support for export business and the failure of the UK to train sufficient engineers and other skilled staff.  These are two structural weaknesses that undermine the UK as a whole.  The first can be solved easily, through government initiative; the second is more about long term educational targets and making manufacturing more attractive to the most talented students.

This brings me on to a personal belief.  Young people in the UK are going to have to start paying for their university education.  I believe that it is in the national interest to subsidise education in key disciplines like engineering and sciences.  Students could be bound to work in the sector for a length of time after graduation, say 5- 10 years, this is how the armed forces secure their talent.  In the next 10 years this would make a significant difference to the sector and go a long way to ensuring its future.

The full results to our survey will be published in the press in the next few weeks.