Jaguar Land Rover, the UK manufacturer of premium vehicles, has recommended the Government continues to support measures to enhance innovation and engineering skills to ensure Britain’s future manufacturing competitiveness.
Mike Wright, executive director at Jaguar Land Rover, encouraged ministers and business leaders gathered at the 2013 BIS Manufacturing Summit to make innovation the Government’s key economic priority in the future to offset challenges facing UK manufacturers.
In an opening address, Wright said: “It is investment in innovation that will make the difference to growth.”
Wright cited Jaguar Land Rover’s track record over the past two years – creating more than 9,000 new jobs and investing almost £10 billion in the UK supply chain – as evidence of the wider economic benefits flowing from a focus on technology and innovation at globally-successful UK companies. But he highlighted the ongoing challenge of supplier finance incentives and the shortage of graduate engineers as well as the fact that the UK stands at only 17th in the OECD for R&D support as a percentage of GDP.
“We recognise Government has been working on these issues but if we are to rebalance and grow the UK economy, we need a continued focus on Government investment support for R&D, improved supplier access to finance, and support for more engineering studies and skills-training.
“If our suppliers cannot access the right skills, technology and finance, then they may not be able to invest as much in the UK as we would all like,” he added.
