Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation

Ever since the pandemic and leaving the EU, I have failed to understand why we haven’t seen more reshoring in manufacturing.

I appreciate it’s easy for me to say, but it’s as if all the hard lessons from that period haven’t been learned. A programme of reshoring would not only have protected supply chains but would have made them stronger and - dare I say it - have even gone a long way to ‘reindustrialisation’.

Instead, we are on the verge of an abyss. The real issue isn’t just this latest wave of disruption. I think it’s too easy, or even lazy, to blame today’s struggles on the uncertainty surrounding ‘Trump Tariffs’ or his ego-driven trade wars…they aren’t the cause of our problems, they’re just cracking an egg that was already far too fragile.

The truth is that the challenges facing British manufacturing, especially our SMEs and downstream metal users, have been years in the making. Our economy isn’t struggling because of a single policy or moment. It’s been built on policy decisions made by successive governments, decisions that have seen the manufacturing sector’s share of GDP fall by over a third from 15 per cent in 2000 to around nine per cent today. 

We are reaping the results of weak investment in UK manufacturing that has gone on for decades. Successive government policies, whether that be on energy, skills, or infrastructure, have completely failed industry. The previous government couldn’t even bring itself to have an Industrial Strategy, whilst Labour, who were elected on a platform for growth, pulled the rug from under us with an anti-growth budget - just a few months after coming into power.

As a result, manufacturing finds itself on such fragile foundations that with every external shock, we see more cracks appearing. As a country, it’s shocking that we are much closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation.

Today, a steel industry we want to desperately support, is either uncompetitive or unable to supply our needs and the protectionism through safeguards meant to protect them, ends up impacting downstream manufacturers.

This won’t be popular with some, but the headlong drive to Net Zero is bringing the UK Steel industry to its knees. Foreign owners dictate the narrative and, for the automotive sector, did we really need the shockwaves of US tariffs to come into play before amending the self-imposed ‘ZEV’ mandates ‘tax’ and new restrictive taxes that do little to accelerate EV sales?

We talk a lot about supporting British industry, but talk is cheap. We need competitive energy prices now, a fair-trading environment, and supply chains that work for the businesses that rely on them. We require policies that strengthen manufacturing, not paying lip service whilst continuing to push financial services. 

In short, we need action to stop the harm and a real plan for reindustrialisation before it’s too late for businesses, our members and hundreds of thousands of SMEs that actually make things, who are being left behind.

The Confederation of British Metalforming is standing up for our members and the businesses that keep this country’s manufacturing sector alive. We will continue to push for the policies, the investment, and the changes that will allow our members to compete and thrive.

Without action, without a real strategy, and l don’t mean a flimsy Industrial Strategy with no investment behind it, we all know where it’s heading!

Deindustrialisation isn’t inevitable but if we don’t fight for manufacturing now, it could be.

Steve Morley, president of the Confederation of British Metalforming (CBM)