Manufacturers appeal for extra help in recession's aftermath

David Cameron's team were visited in Bradford yesterday by businessmen Ian Parker and Richard Wright, who revealed how the region's companies needed support in planning for the future.

Mr Parker is chief executive of Liversedge-based firm Birkby's Plastics and Mr Wright chairs the region's manufacturing taskforce, which was formed last year in response to steelmaker Corus's decision to lay off more than 1,000 workers from its South Yorkshire plants.

Mr Wright said: "We talked very much about the structural things that we need to grow manufacturing to the level that is necessary for Yorkshire and the UK. To put the country back in balance, we think manufacturing should account for 20 per cent of GDP and we need to be exporting in excess of 75 per cent of the goods we produce.

"Excluding food and drink, currently it is recognised that manufacturing accounts for around 13 per cent of GDP – down from a high of 30 per cent during the 1970s."

Ministers were told that getting banks to lend more would help manufacturing companies prosper. Mr Wright said: "You cannot cost-control yourself a future – you have to innovate one.

"I know very few private businesses that have not had to cut costs in recent months, but they also have to make some very important decisions about the investments they make to exploit new markets."

"Access to finance is a very big issue for a lot of companies in the region, both in the short term to finance investment in the upturn after the recession and in the long term for research and development and capital investment. "To develop future products for future markets, companies need to be thinking in five, 10 and 20-year series for their forward planning."

The Cabinet was also encouraged to improve skills training in the manufacturing sector, which Mr Wright said needed operators, technicians and technology."We got some good questioning and we got some sympathy for some of our views. I think they listened very carefully and took it all on board, and I know that they discussed our points even after we had left," he said.

Other business leaders had a chance to air their views when Nick Clegg hosted a meeting at the Mumtaz restaurant in Bradford.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who arrived at the restaurant with Chancellor George Osborne, was met by owner Mumtaz Khan and given a tour of the business.