Becoming the supply chain for the world

The rest of the UK is now being told what Lancashire has always known – that manufacturing plays a huge part in the UK’s economy.

“The True Impact of UK Manufacturing” shows industry is worth £518bn and supports 7.3 million UK jobs across the communities it operates in, making up nearly a quarter of the UK’s GDP.

The secret is in the supply chain and that is what we have locally in Lancashire in spades. The mantra from BAE has always been – we are here and we stay here because of our supply chain of 500-plus SMEs.

To co-locate with their supply chain has been a major driver behind so many recent inward investment journeys of businesses coming to Lancashire. To make their suppliers not just arms length, lowest price vendors, continents away, at the mercy of covid and Red Sea fragility of transport routes, but to be close at hand – local, reachable, partners in product development.

This report from The Manufacturing Technologies Association and Oxford Economics gives us the ammunition – power to our voice, statistics on a national scale - and we need to use them.

We must lobby our future government and combined authority. The UK must have an industrial strategy with ambition. We must look at our overseas competitors, build on our best sector strengths and capitalise on all those talents – we can be the supply chain for the world.

For the Lancashire economy, for our supply chain of manufacturers across so many sectors, our business communities and our future jobs – we must.

Click here to download the report (PDF).