Government responds to Vote Manufacturing campaign
1 min read
The Government has responded to the Vote Manufacturing campaign, set up by Findlay Media prior to the General Election.
The campaign was established to encourage voters to petition electorial candidates to put in place critical measures identified by the Future of UK Manufacturing Summit. These included action on long term leadership, culture change, engineering skills, energy costs, incentives and taxes.
The full response is below.
The Government has put in place the essential first steps towards economic recovery by tackling the deficit in a way that prioritises growth, as well as fairness and reform. It is now building on this by creating the right conditions for growth that will help business, including manufacturers, invest for the long-term to ensure future success.
We will shortly be publishing a new Manufacturing Framework, setting out a new and fresh approach that reflects manufacturing's importance for our economic recovery and the growth of the UK economy. It has therefore been very useful to have sight of the five priorities identified at the Manufacturing Summit in the process of developing of the new Framework.
The Government is already taking forward actions in many of these areas identified at the Summit. For example: on skills, the Government is taking significant steps, such as the recent announcement of funding for an extra 75,000 apprenticeship places over the next four years.
On regulation, we have said we will have a one in one out rule whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount.
On simplified incentives, with the abolition of the RDAs, we have been considering how best to deliver business support in future. We are committed to providing information and guidance to support business growth and for people looking to start up in business.
We are acting across Government to maximise the opportunities to secure the long-term future of manufacturing, with for example the launch of the UK's first ever Infrastructure Plan setting out the infrastructure Britain needs and how Government will unlock £200 billion worth of public and private sector investment over the next five years to deliver it. On culture change, we agree that there is a continuing problem with the perception of modern manufacturing that requires a combined approach from industry, media, government, and others to address successfully.
