I can't seem to find EEF's comment piece for the Guardian anywhere online even though its on pg 25 of today's paper.
So here it is:
After the current economic crisis subsides, higher borrowing costs and greater financial market regulation will confine a decade of debt and public sector largesse to the history books. When the upturn eventually arrives it is extremely difficult to see how the UK can return to pre-recession, business as usual growth. The recession provides the perfect opportunity to begin to build a better, more diverse economy.
And for a diverse economy to thrive it’s vital that manufacturers continue to evolve, adapt and grow. UK manufacturers have improved their competitiveness, productivity and global reach. They responded to the recession at the beginning of this decade, an uncompetitive exchange rate and the emergence of new low cost producers with a significant shift in their business strategies.
They stopped competing on price or volume, focusing instead on a broad range of value adding strategies. They entered niche markets and differentiated themselves through a combination of innovation and design, production capacity, flexibility and customer service. They implemented IT solutions and lean manufacturing techniques to drive up performance and efficiency. They invested in knowledge – whether wrapped in the metal of modern machinery or embodied in employee expertise – to continually add value.
Only a stronger, globally focused and diverse economy will enable us to generate the wealth needed to correct our economic imbalances and achieve broader national prosperity. Our economic future is, therefore, inextricably linked to the development of a strong UK manufacturing base that’s open to global markets, focused on knowledge and high value and capable of exploiting fast growing markets.
Yet, without a change to the composition of our economy, the UK is likely to grow significantly below our long-term potential. The focus, therefore, must shift to supporting a more diverse, agile and innovative manufacturing base, a sector that’s able to provide many of the solutions to the UK’s future challenges and, consequently, the goods and services exports needed to close the trade deficit and underpin future prosperity. Put simply, the UK needs to focus its scarce resources and provide clear, long-term support for manufacturing inorder to stimulate and encourage the production of goods and services that allow us to pay or way in the world.