CBI: “UK manufacturing is misunderstood”

Government policy has not caught up with the changing dynamics of the manufacturing sector, says the new chairman of the CBI’s manufacturing council. Andrew Reynolds Smith, who is also executive director of GKN, said the sector deserves greater credit for its successes in recent years, and for its key role as part of the wider economy. “Manufacturing is misunderstood,” he told business leaders at a recent CBI event in Banbury. “Public opinion is of a small, declining sector, owned by foreigners and on the brink of being totally offshored to China – but in fact there are over 150,000 businesses that manufacture in the UK, turning over £500bn.”