The always perceptive David Smith had an excellent article in the Sunday Times yesterday on deindustrialisation and whether reindustrialisation is a realistic prospect as Andy Burnham hopes.
David Smith hails from the Black Country (as does my wife) and went back there for a school reunion. He discovered more successful industrial firms than he had anticipated, albeit generally SMEs.
In the mid 1970s I went round the West Midlands interviewing a range of firms, mainly SMEs. (The interview transcripts have been lodged with the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University).
I didn't see how these firms could survive and very few of them did. Among the problems I encountered were:
- Insufficient investment
- Complacent managers out of touch with the shop floor, in many cases they couldn't go on it
- Difficult relations with unions in many firms and in particular the shop stewards
- Back offices that seemed to belong to the Victorian era
- A lack of research and development and innovation
- 'Sitting by Nellie' apprenticeships
- Lack of a marketing strategy
This is certainly part of the story, but one must also take account of the liberalisation of international trade under GATT. Low added value metal bashers in the Midlands were swept aside by what were known as the 'newly industrialising countries' with lower labour costs and modern equipment.
Attempts were made by the 1974-9 Labour Government to modernise failing sectors, but it was often too late. In one sector firms forged scrapping certificates for old machinery they were attached to rather than install modern machinery.
According to Smith, Burnham's Labour is focusing on the following industrial sectors: advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; the creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services — not all of which would have been thought of traditionally as industry. It is all very well supporting the creative industries when the university courses that support them are starved of funds with many staff being sacked. Theatres and museums are also under pressure.
If I take my own town of Leamington or 'Silicon Spa' as it is now known, we have lost:
- Automotive Products who employed around 6,000 to make brakes and clutches, 'there is a part of Leamington in every car. (There is a stun company).
- The Ford foundry, site now occupied by a de luxe furniture factory.
- Pottertons gas boilers
