Poll suggests government policies aren’t helping manufacturers

More than half of the 1,000 manufacturers surveyed said they felt the government was performing badly on manufacturing policy, with just 14% polled saying the government was performing well. In a poll of 1,000 members of the public, 72% said the government was more committed to the financial sector than manufacturing, while just 26% of respondents agreed that that the government was committed to rebalancing the economy towards manufacturing. In the strongest result of the survey, more than 75% of manufacturers and 72% of the public said the government should favour UK based companies when awarding contracts, even if this was a more expensive option. Philippa Oldham, head of manufacturing at the IMechE, commented: "The UK's manufacturing sector has the potential to spearhead economic recovery and lead the country towards growth. Yet in the past twelve months what was a steady rise in manufacturing growth has turned into a slow crawl. "Rebalancing the economy towards manufacturing is not an easy task, however these polls make it clear that the government's policies to make it happen do not have the support of UK manufacturers or the general public. Oldham went on to say that the warm words spoken by the government about UK manufacturing over the past two years were 'wearing thin'. She concluded: "It's time for the government to engage with industry now to create a long term industrial strategy that can put UK manufacturing, once the envy of the world, back on top." The full report can be downloaded below.