Whitehall ‘more interested in financials than manufacturing’

Its survey of 1,000 manufacturers – including food and drink businesses – revealed that 61% of respondents believed the government is performing badly on manufacturing policy.

Nearly 90% of manufacturers, and over half of public respondents, said Prime Minister David Cameron’s government was more committed to the financial sector than manufacturing industry.

Less than one third (26%) of manufacturers thought government policies were helping UK manufacturers.

‘Not doing enough with careers advice’​

Most manufacturers and the public agreed the government was not doing enough with careers advice to promote science, engineering and manufacturing.

Philippa Oldham, head of manufacturing at the IMechE, said: “It is clear from these findings that the majority of people, whether they work in manufacturing or not, believe the government is not doing enough to promote, help and support UK manufacturing.​

“Our survey in 2012 revealed that the government’s manufacturing policies did not have the support of manufacturers or the public. One year on, it seems the situation has got worse.”​

Oldham added that the UK manufacturing sector should be at “the very heart of a thriving economy​”, but there was “little confidence among the respondents”​ that the government was doing enough to make this happen.

‘Too committed to the financial sector’​

“People overwhelmingly said the government still remains far too committed to the financial sector, when it should be looking to the potential of manufacturing to spearhead economic recovery and lead the country towards growth,”​ she said.

“We have welcomed the interest shown in UK manufacturing by the main party leaders in recent months, but visits to factories and warm words of encouragement are not enough.” ​

The government should set out a clear, long-term industrial strategy with cross-party support, said the IMechE. The strategy should address the engineering skills shortage and provide greater financial incentives similar to the research and development tax credits that have already been implemented.

Terry Jones, the Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF’s) director of communications, said the FDF depended upon close co-operation with various government departments.

“To realise our vision, shared with government, to grow food and drink manufacturing by 20% by 2020, requires FDF to work with departments across Whitehall to deliver projects that will help to accelerate the rate of growth in the sector,”​ he said.

“Sometimes, as with our work on exports, we work directly with government departments and agencies, while in other areas we have been able to access government funds to support the delivery of industry projects such as our MEng ​[degree] in food engineering​ at Sheffield Hallam.”​

The survey results were based on independent telephone polls commissioned by the IMechE, which were conducted last month. MSS Research surveyed 1,000 IMechE members – including food and drink manufacturers.

ICM conducted a separate poll of 1,000 members of the public on behalf of IMechE.

Food and drink is the UK's biggest manufacturing sector.

IME survey – the manufacturers’ views

• 61% – said the government was performing badly on manufacturing policy
• 17% – thought the government was performing well
• 35% – were less confident about the future of UK manufacturing, compared with 23% last year
• 53% – thought the government’s energy policies were performing “badly”
• 73% – worried the government was not doing enough with careers advice to promote science, engineering and manufacturing in schools.

Source: IME