'Reduce VAT': what more could be done to boost your local engineering industry?

We asked Professional Engineering readers what more could be done to encourage and support the engineering industry in their local area.

"Providing financial incentives to encourage the next generation to choose engineering as a profession, noting that we are a long way short of producing the number of qualified engineers we need."

Mark, South West

"Lobby the government to reduce VAT on goods, services and materials supplied by local companies to local companies. The money generated should be reinvested back into apprentice schemes and technology to improve process and production."

David Mee, North East

"I am located just north of Bradford, a region where it is considered that a Northern Powerhouse rail network offers a higher return than HS2 or 3. Particularly a faster east-west line across the country. Near Skipton there seems a good chance that an old line across the Pennines is going to be reopened and that will logically connect the busy Aire Valley line with Barnoldswick and Colne in Lancashire."

Denis Oglesby, West Yorkshire

"My area was a centre of engineering and we need it to come back via appropriate investment as a major focus for the Northern Powerhouse, using the superb skills base which exists here as we, the UK, move into the broad sunlit uplands that exist as we move into the wider world that exists for us thanks to Brexit."

Richard Young, Manchester

"Civil engineering in this area is dominated by large consulting companies. Their profits depend on large offshore projects. Mechanical engineering has not recovered from the last 20 years of plant closings. The strict legal licensing by the Ontario Professional Engineers tends to frighten small start-up manufacturers."

Ivor Mansell, Ontario, Canada

"I feel lucky to live in the Midlands, where we have such companies as Rolls-Royce, Toyota, Molson Coors, Jaguar Land Rover and a host of innovative businesses. What we need is for the government to ensure international business comes our way and will not divert to mainland Europe. We must stay within the European aerospace sector, for example, and we must make it easy for our car manufacturers to sell abroad, following Brexit."

Martyn Ralph, Midlands

"Derby and the East Midlands is already strong in engineering, hence I think it’s a build rather than starting afresh, with an emphasis on engagement with schools, broadening apprenticeships and encouraging competition and engagement between the creative and engineering industries."

Nicola Johnson, East Midlands

"The engineering industry needs a higher profile in the UK in general, similar to the standing that Germany has of engineers. This needs to be coordinated on a national level, with local support from high-profile companies."

RJB, East Midlands

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