Advanced Manufacturing Conference: Mayor Oliver Coppard says South Yorkshire can be 'in vanguard' of revitalised industry

South Yorkshire can open a new chapter in its impressive history as a “region of makers” as the Government places advanced manufacturing at the heart of its industrial strategy, Oliver Coppard has suggested.

Opening the Advanced Manufacturing Conference at the Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield, Mr Coppard reflected on renewed efforts to build a more resilient and independent economy in an increasingly uncertain world.

The Government has listed advanced manufacturing as one of eight priority sectors.

Its strategy highlights how advanced manufacturing is already “thriving” in South Yorkshire, describing it as a “world-leading cluster”.

It says the UK is entering a major investment cycle, where net zero and digital transformation offer “considerable opportunities for UK manufacturing investment”.

It states the Government must ensure the UK has a competitive offer to influence investment and it highlights how building the manufacturing base could improve local economies, with 84 per cent of jobs in the sector outside of London and the South East, compared to a national average of 69 per cent for the wider economy.

Mr Coppard said views on the importance of manufacturing are now changing for the better.

“We’ve always made things here in South Yorkshire, from steel to trains, cutlery and anything else you can think of,” he said.

“We are a region of makers, it is part of our cultural DNA and muscle memory. Through it we powered the world’s first industrial revolution. Even today, manufacturing accounts for over 12 per cent of our output.

“Manufacturing gave us and continues to give us pride, purpose and prosperity. You see those three things writ large in venues and institutions like the one we are in today. You see it in the companies big and small that call this region their home. You see the investments we have made and the investments we are planning.

“But for a long time we didn’t harness it. We didn’t match that pride with any real plan. That is true as a region and as a country. We took it for granted or at our worst, frankly we sold it down the river.

“Manufacturing isn’t a sector that is as quick to offer a return as finance or as sexy as tech. It is a sector that is capital intensive and vulnerable to international competition with cheaper labour, lower energy costs, fewer safety requirements.

“For the most part it is far away, out of sight and out of mind and something national policymakers in London could ignore.”

Mr Coppard was speaking to around 200 delegates at the event, which was hosted by BBC Look North presenter Amy Garcia.

In his opening address, he drew a parallel between the circumstances of today and those when 19th Century Sheffield inventor Henry Bessemer came up with a new technique for steel production that revolutionised the process and helped establish Sheffield as a major industrial centre that ended up being dubbed the ‘Steel City’.

“The world Bessemer was in looked a lot like the world today. Geopolitical tensions were rising. There was political and economic turbulence on the continent and in the US and the world’s industrial order was changing,” he said.

“At least they didn’t have to worry about the threat of climate breakdown. These key themes are shaping our present and will redefine our future.

“That’s already driving change at a rate that grows every single day.

“Change that requires us to localise and decarbonise our energy production, change that requires to invent, design and manufacture products to make us competitive, change that demands that the UK’s defence capabilities match our needs and those of our allies.

“It is places like Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the north of England that are going to be in the vanguard of our national response.

“The North is absolutely brilliant at it and the price is worth it, not just in terms of a greater resilience to economic shock or greater energy security and ability to protect ourselves and our neighbours.

"It is also because manufacturing creates good jobs. Good work matters, we take pride in it, we take purpose from it and it gives us prosperity.”

Last year, South Yorkshire was named as the UK’s first Investment Zone with a specific focus on advanced manufacturing.

At the time, the Government said it was expected that the Investment Zone will help leverage more than £1.2bn of private funding and help support more than 8,000 jobs by 2030 in South Yorkshire.

Mr Coppard said that advanced manufacturing is central to efforts to improve South Yorkshire’s economy.

"We remain one of the most centralised economies in the Western world with the highest regional inequality to match, but that is changing,” he said.

"No more will South Yorkshire just be a line on a Treasury spreadsheet or a footnote in a remote national strategy, we will have the tools to do something about it. We’re not there yet, but we are on the right path. The rest of the North is on that journey too. That’s why we should be so excited about the future for manufacturing.”