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Richard Slater, Lancashire Business View (chair) Miranda Barker, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce Neil Burrows, Burnley College Michael Dugdale, Trident Paula Gill, North West Aerospace Alliance Jerrod Hartley, Airframe Designs Paul O’Brien, Senator Group Mark Preston, MGS Technical Plastics Zowi Whittaker, Fox Group
CHALLENGING TIMES
We brought a panel of experts to Trident in Blackpool to talk about the county’s manufacturing sector, its future and the roles of policy, skills, energy and sustainability in that future
Miranda Barker, chief executive, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce
When we’re talking to businesses, the order book is the thing they’ve got faith in.
What is frustrating is that businesses have been in a holding pattern for their own investment because we’ve seen changes in national tax structure and national government strategy.
It’s those outside things that are crippling them – employment law changes, business taxation and national insurance.
Government strategy annoys me. If you look at the industrial strategy, especially for manufacturing; for clean energy, we see the North West has got the right sectors ticked but then the focus is all around investing in
cities or mayoral economies.
I appreciate that is a nudge to get everyone to adopt a mayor but I feel it’s damaging the UK economy because it is leaving investment out of key areas such as Lancashire.
Lancashire is one of the leading areas in the UK in terms of the energy and the low carbon tech sector and by 2030 that sector will be worth £1trillion in the UK, so it’s a massive opportunity.
Businesses should diversify into that arena and adopt energy generation. Electricity North West will pay you for the energy you don’t use.
The government’s investment is structured around things like the National Wealth Fund, GB Energy, the British Business Bank.
We see money being poured into those but we’re worried about making sure it actually comes out as a benefit for businesses.
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