The support for businesses in the last two years to help them cope with the pandemic has been unprecedented. Stoke-on-Trent alone has had about £1 million in grants for businesses to cope with the challenges, not to mention all the support received through the furlough scheme, CBILS and self-employment income support scheme. Given that we now have record numbers of people in work—far more than before the pandemic—those measures have clearly worked to preserve jobs and livelihoods.
Many of the challenges are not new, however, and we must continue to support businesses to overcome the challenges they face. A part of the economy that has been particularly affected by the heightened energy costs is energy intensive industries such as ceramics and steel, which were the subject of my recent Westminster Hall debate. Hundreds of thousands of important skilled jobs are dependent on those sectors.
Unlike the significant decline in manufacturing jobs that we saw under the last Labour Government, in the last decade an increasing number of people have been employed in manufacturing roles. It is vital to further support those sectors to reduce energy costs; become more efficient; and develop new, more reliable forms of power to continue the successes that we have seen in recent years.
In the ceramics sector alone, there has been a doubling of GVA in real terms since 2010. I was particularly pleased that the Midlands Industrial Ceramics Group recently secured £18.27 million in Government funding through the UK Research and Innovation’s strength in places fund. The Government are doubling UK research and development investment and it is vital that more of that goes to industries such as ceramics and to energy intensive industries to support the transition and the levelling-up of our economy across the country.
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