Make It in England or Lose It

11 March 2026 | W.E.U Admin | News

TAGS: Manufacturing, UK Economy, English Industries

Why Manufacturing Needs Urgent Reinvestment

Manufacturing in England is not dying, but it is being slowly starved. Around 2.6 million people still work in manufacturing across England, yet the sector’s share of the economy has fallen from over 25% in the late 1970’s to around 10% today. This was not inevitable. It was a political choice.

English manufacturing investment is consistently lower than that of comparable economies. According to international data, the United Kingdom invests around 20% less per worker in manufacturing capital than Germany.

[Image of a bar chart comparing manufacturing investment per worker between the UK and Germany]

The result is predictable: older machinery, lower productivity, and jobs that are easier to move overseas. The cost is already visible; since 2010, England has experienced a significant UK manufacturing employment decline, with the sharpest losses felt in the Midlands and the North.

Entire supply chains have weakened, leaving the country exposed during crises. During Covid, England struggled to produce basic protective equipment and medical supplies, despite having the skills and workforce to do so.

Underinvestment

This was not a failure of workers across England. Productivity gaps are driven by underinvestment, not effort. Where firms invest, workers across England match or exceed international standards. The problem is that too many firms extract profits instead of reinvesting them.

Public spending could reverse this trend almost immediately. England’s public sector spends around £300 billion to £430 billion annually on procurement of goods, works, and services. Other countries explicitly use procurement to support national industry. England largely does not.

Reinvestment must be conditional. Any firm receiving public contracts or subsidies should be required to:

Manufacture in England where capacity exists
Recognise the involvement of independent Trade Unions on business boards
Provide apprenticeships and paid training
Commit to long-term domestic production

Publicly backed investment is also essential. Countries with strong manufacturing bases use publicly owned, development banks to provide long term capital and long term investment. England relies heavily on private finance that prioritises short-term returns. This is why viable plants close while profits leave the country.

Without intervention, manufacturing decline will continue quietly until the capacity is gone. Rebuilding it later will cost far more than protecting it now.

This matters because manufacturing investments take time. New plants, new production lines, and new technologies do not pay off in a year or two. Private finance often avoids this risk or demands high returns quickly, which leads to underinvestment, plant closures, offshoring, and asset stripping.

Reinvesting in English manufacturing is not nostalgia. It is economic self-defence, job security, and national resilience. Investment that is long-term, often over ten, twenty or thirty years is essential.

It means the British government has to lower pressure for immediate profit or rapid cost-cutting, there has to be a willingness to invest in factories, machinery, research, and skills and government needs to support industries that are strategically important but not immediately highly profitable.

What Public Procurement Is

Public procurement is the process by which government bodies buy goods, services and construction work from private sector companies. It includes things such as:

Building and maintaining public infrastructure
Purchasing medical equipment and supplies
Software, information technology and digital services
Transport services and vehicle fleets
Cleaning, catering and facilities management

These purchases are made by central government departments, local councils, national health services, emergency services, and other public bodies across the whole of the United Kingdom (including England).

How Big It Actually Is

Recent government analysis shows that gross public sector procurement spending was approximately £434 billion in the financial year 2024–2025 across the United Kingdom. Independent reviews and expert commentary estimate that, when looking at consistent annual figures, the public sector spends around £300 billion each year on procurement, which is roughly one third of all public expenditure.

Why That Matters

This is a very large amount of money. Governments control it, and how they choose to spend it has a huge impact on domestic business activity, job creation in English industries, the quality and stability of employment, and wages and training opportunities.

If a significant share of that procurement spend were directed toward companies that manufacture goods in England, hire local workers on fair contracts, and invest in skills, it could support thousands of skilled jobs and stronger supply chains.