Manufacturing decline is a failure of Osborne’s making, says TUC

12 January 2016

Commenting on the latest figures for UK manufacturing published today (Tuesday) by the Office for National Statistics, which show a decline of 0.4% on the month, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“George Osborne’s cocktail of threats has been spiked with his own failures. Not least of these is manufacturing, which is still far behind its pre-crisis peak and has fallen by 1.2 per cent over the last year.

“If the government had made the right choices with strong investment in skills, infrastructure and innovation, we could be in a much stronger position.

Today’s figures also show iron and steel production down 30 per cent on their recent peak, and facing their sharpest decline since the financial crisis. Frances O’Grady said:

“Steel production has seen its sharpest fall since the financial crisis. This is the inevitable result of the government’s failure to step in and give UK steel the support it needs. Unless the government puts in place a genuine industrial strategy, we risk further serious consequences for steel and many other manufacturers down the supply chain.”

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