Professional Engineering

In recent years many people have questioned whether there is still a place for engineering in the modern UK economy.

For them, the achievements of great engineering pioneers such as George Stephenson, James Watt and Isambard Kingdom Brunel belong to our heritage and our future lies in the finance and service sectors. 

I believe that is simply not the case. Not only is their legacy still alive today, but we are looking for the next generation of people with those abilities, skills and vision who will prove to be critical if our economy is to recover and grow. Engineers solve problems and turn ideas into reality. We need them if we are to rebalance the economy and boost UK competitiveness.

In government we intend to be a real partner to the engineering sector. This does not mean picking winners, meddling in individual projects or imposing burdensome regulation on businesses or research and development. 

Instead, I believe our role is to create the right environment for the sector to flourish and allow it to reach its full potential. This means making sure we have a skilled workforce; creating a progressive tax regime and a stable regulatory environment; establishing excellent business support networks and investing in enterprise and research and development. The first priority for the government has quite rightly been to tackle the record budget deficit we face. Now our challenge is to find the best ways to encourage sustainable growth with the limited resources we have. 

Skills for the future

If the engineering sector is to fulfil its great potential there must be a steady supply of highly skilled engineers. It is estimated that by 2017 587,000 new workers will be needed in the manufacturing sector. But it is not just numbers that we need. These workers need to have the cutting-edge skills to help us compete in the global marketplace.

My department is working with a wide range of partners to convey the importance of engineering and build an interest in engineering and a respect for those who practise it. We need to get across the message that a career in engineering can be a rewarding path for many young people, providing interesting work and excellent pay.

As well as a skilled workforce, we need the right business environment to turn ideas into reality.

In June’s budget, we unveiled a number of measures to ensure that UK industry benefits from a simpler, more predictable and stable tax system. We will reduce the main rate of corporate tax from 28% to 24% over the next four years and next year the small companies rate will be cut to 20%. This means that by 2014 this country will have the lowest corporation tax of any major western economy.

We’re also investing in industry. We’ve put an extra £200 million into the Enterprise Finance Guarantee and we will continue to work to find ways to help industry access both debt and equity finance, particularly for growing businesses.

We’re also adopting a new “one in, one out” system on all regulation across Whitehall to reduce the incredible burden that red tape places on enterprise.

We have wasted no time in tackling the record budget deficit. Our next challenge will be to rebalance the economy and reposition it for long-term sustainable growth. Engineering will be at the centre of this. British engineers led the Industrial Revolution. I believe we can be just as innovative in the 21st century.