K. Lacey Wires and Cables

British industry will build 15% by value of each of the 3,000-plus planned F-35s, creating and sustaining more than 20,000 jobs across the UK. From the Martin-Baker ejection seat to the Cobham refuelling probe and BAE Systems-built horizontal tails, every F-35 has British parts incorporated from nose to tail. Ultra Electronics, Collins Aerospace and Rolls-Royce are just some of the more than 100 UK-based suppliers. (Source: Lockheed Martin)

Update - Campaign for a Manufacturing Champion! In the true spirit of honesty, it’s been a ridiculous week! As a result, I’m still struggling to totally absorb all aspects of the consultation document to inform our new Industrial Strategy. Thankfully, ConeX Portal collaboration wins again as the wonderful Adam Payne FInstLM used his truly exceptional skills and sent us his own thoughts and ideas on the opportunities it may provide for SMEs. And I think it’s fabulous! And a great resource for those of us busy “getting stuff done” on a daily basis. So – Key Points for UK Manufacturing SMEs: 1. Focus on boosting productivity and earning power across the UK, including through investments in skills, infrastructure, innovation, and business growth. 2. Commitment to raise total R&D investment GDP by 2027, including increasing R&D tax credit. This provides opportunities for manufacturing SMEs to increase R&D activities. 3. Create an Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to drive innovation in areas like clean growth, AI and data, future of mobility, and ageing society. Manufacturing. SMEs can potentially access this funding. 4. New Sector Deals announced for life sciences, construction, artificial intelligence and automotive sectors. Further sector deals may benefit supply chains. 5. Multi billion investment plan to support innovative businesses, including a new Investment Fund. This aims to improve access to finance for high-potential SMEs. 6. Review to be launched on actions to improve productivity of SMEs, including addressing the 'long tail' of lower productivity firms. 7. Emphasis on developing technical skills, including new T-levels and institutes of technology. This should help address manufacturing skills shortages. 8. Multi million investment in STEM skills. 9. New National Retraining Scheme to support reskilling for digital and construction training. 10. Local Industrial Strategies to be developed to build on regional strengths. SMEs should engage with local Government on these. 11. Transforming Cities Fund for intra-city transport improvements, which may benefit supply chains. 12. Continued commitment to reducing regulatory burdens on SMEs. 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗝𝗢𝗕! Please, please feed in where asked, invited, or the opportunity is offered. You cannot complain moving forward if you don’t offer your opinion now. If no "industry led" opportunity has arisen yet, PLEASE visit the Government consultation site in the comments and add your own VIEWS! 𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙔 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙛 𝙒𝙀 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙮. This is our chance - please - let's not waste it!! 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 continue to shout loud and proud and spread the word that we deserve effective, strategic representation in Government. #shoutaboutukmfg – positive news #supportukmfg – promoting engineering & manufacturing #ukmanufacturing – promoting our industry #ministerformanufacturing - posts relating to this campaign

Update - Campaign for a Manufacturing Champion! It’s been a busy week of Industrial Strategy discussion and debate. How wonderful it is to see #UKManufacturing coming together to publicise, debate and feed into something we've waited so long for... If you missed my post Monday, the headlines are: ·       The green paper has been published outlining the Governments 10-year Industrial Strategy – it’s called Invest 2035: the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy. ·       The Chair of the newly formed Industrial Strategy Advisory Council has been appointed. Members will be announced in the coming weeks. ·       Most importantly, the Council will be incorporated on a statutory footing giving it powers and responsibilities and ensuring it will be PERMANENT and INDEPENDENT. ·       The Government are asking for business to “partner” in helping shape the strategy. ·       A new Supply Chain Taskforce will work to assess where supplies critical to the UK’s economic security and resilience could be vulnerable to disruption. Disappointingly, the term SME is mentioned only 3 times in 66 pages (unless I’ve missed any others!) 𝗦𝗼 – 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿! So – what do we next? The suggestion previously was split between us re-launching the petition and writing directly to our MP’s. Last week I mentioned I’d announce how many letters were requested during the last 3 weeks. Nobody really added a guess, but I think you’ll be equally disappointed to hear that only 31 letters have been requested. 𝗬𝗲𝘀 – 𝟯𝟭! To launch a petition of any value, we need at least 10,000 signatures to be acknowledged, 100,000 to be debated. We talk about alignment – there couldn’t be less alignment here…. 😕 It’s easy to think everyone else will fight the battles, and that our voice will have little or no impact. But, if we all feel that way, and don't fight, what chance do we have? Even interactions with these posts have dropped off lately. (Maybe I'm becoming boring! 🙄) Hopefully, it’s because everyone is flooded with orders, and not some new LinkedIn algorithm, but it’s hard to stay energised when only 31 people carried out the action so many of us agreed was of value... 𝙎𝙤, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙒𝙀 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩? Hopefully, the "elevator pitch" Sam Baynham and Adam Payne FInstLM are working on will be a really strong message but how do we get it heard? This is 𝗢𝗨𝗥 campaign - we've achieved traction and awareness in the Industry, but we need to get it "out" in the World. 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩? All advice welcome! 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 continue to shout loud and spread the word that we deserve effective, strategic representation in Government. #shoutaboutukmfg – positive news #supportukmfg – promoting engineering & manufacturing #ukmanufacturing – promoting our industry #ministerformanufacturing - posts relating to this campaign