Rebalancing just rhetoric says sector

Whitehall could not shake an institutional bias towards financial services according to WM research. The coalition was accused of lacking the desire, know-how or patience needed to boost manufacturing's contribution to GDP, in a survey of nearly 170 site managers. One respondent said: "The UK government is not committed to manufacturing….Its sole focus has been the City..Why was Rover allowed to die, yet every bank was rescued?" Another added: "There is no current evidence that the government is supporting manufacturing other than the odd sentence in speeches." Site managers voiced ongoing frustrations over the skills gap and barriers to investment. Whitehall must deliver immediate and practical steps to address these shortfalls to foster sustained manufacturing growth, respondents warned. Business confidence was also being eroded by "silly" changes to employment law. One respondent said: They are making the right noises but they carry on with silly legislation like pensions reform which makes employing older people who tend to have the right skills far more difficult." Others issued a more supportive verdict on the coalition's tenure so far. Several respondents applauded the government's move to cut public sector spending. David Cameron's administration was being unfairly criticised for other people's mistakes according to one respondent. "This government has a difficult task correcting the previous government's mistakes," they said. Overall a third of respondents tipped the government to fail in its bid to rebalance the economy towards manufacturing. Another third said they were unsure whether the government would succeed. Survey highlights 37% don't believe the government can create the conditions to rebalance the economy 69% would measure success by an increase in manufacturing's share of GDP 75% said UK's future economic success hinges on rebalancing towards manufacturing 1% felt future prospects depended on the financial services sector