New programme will boost Essex’s manufacturing and engineering sector
Business / Wed 12th Feb 2025 at 08:26am
ADVANCED manufacturing and engineering small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from a new specialist support programme.
Business can access the programme if they are in Essex or across the East of England.
The Made Smarter Adoption East of England programme, overseen by Norfolk County Council, will see businesses receive funding and bespoke support.
The £1.2 million grant scheme has been made available through an agreement with the Department for Business and Trade.
It will support SMEs’ adoption of Industrial Digital Technologies (IDT) through offering:
impartial advice and guidance
a digital readiness roadmap
leadership and management development programmes to upskill the workforce
The programme aims to increase awareness of IDT and provide funding to invest in solutions, know-how and skills. Match-funded grants of up to £20,000 will also be on offer for the adoption of new technologies in the financial year 2025-2026.
In the pilot year, it is estimated there will be:
133 engagements with businesses
80 digital road mapping sessions
20 senior business leaders supported through leadership and management training
24 operational managers taken through organisation and workforce development
A total of 24 match-funded grants of £20,000 are expected to be awarded.
Councillor Louise McKinlay, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities, Economic Growth and Prosperity, said: “Advanced manufacturing and engineering is one of the five key growth sectors in Essex. The new funding will help to connect manufacturers in Essex to digital tools, innovations, and skills that can revolutionise their operations.
“We look forward to working with Norfolk County Council and our partners from across the East of England on the programme and building on this important partnership with the Department for Business and Trade going forward.”
The East of England is the UK’s third largest region when it comes to gross value added (GVA) and its sixth largest manufacturing sector. Manufacturing accounts for 10.4% of the region’s total output – above the national average of 9.4%.
The three largest manufacturing sub-sectors are Food & Drink (13.3%) Pharmaceuticals (12%) and Machinery Equipment (10.8%). There were 229,000 manufacturing jobs in the East of England in 2024, representing 7% of its total workforce and 0.6% of the UK’s total workforce.
Made Smarter is an Industry and Government partnership. It is committed to realising the ambitions set out in the 2017 Made Smarter Review. Its focus is on how UK manufacturing industries can prosper through digital tools and innovation.
Benefits of improved adoption of IDT identified in the report include:
£455 billion additional GVA
30% productivity increase
175,000 new jobs
4.5% reduction in CO2 emissions
The Made Smarter East of England Programme Board will monitor the delivery of the programme. The board will consist of a private sector chair, industry representation and representatives from across the six upper tier authorities in the East of England: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Businesses from the East of England can register for the programme. It will start from 1 April 2025.
Visit: https://www.madesmarter.uk/adoption/in-my-region/east-of-england/.
If you have any queries, please contact [email protected]
David Forman
2025-02-12 09:55:07
I wish I had a pound for every time I heard about a new initiative to boost manufacturing, yet continues to decline as a share of the UK's economy. The House of Commons Library reported in October last year: "Since 1990 the share of the economy attributed to manufacturing has decreased from 17% to 9%." This new initiative of £480k will help to develop 44 managers. However, not a penny for technicians or engineers. An alternative would be to make Open University truly affordable for the average manual worker and improve and subsidize vocational further education. The Trades Union Congress has long argued that public procurement should favour British companies and that the government accept working people need a say in their industries through collective bargaining. I remember the Macmillan, Heath and Callaghan governments having a National Economic Development Council that included the trade unions, which would be a welcome return. The NEDC existed from 1962 to 1992, but Thatcher governments never took the forum seriously. But any industrial strategy needs investment from government and a rebuilding of public services, especially health and education.
Adam
2025-02-12 13:11:26
It would be simpler not to tax them in the first place and allow businesses to invest. Grants like this always come with crazy overheads on reporting and also they driven by people who generally have no idea what they are talking about from the council etc. The simplest way to get this going is to cut taxes and regulation then you can fire all the business support people the councils employ who have never run a business and have no idea what they are talking about. It is not hard to do just cut taxes and regulation. OH and abolish unions they destroyed industry in the 70s
Guy flegman
2025-02-12 17:05:59
As I run an engineering enterprise that makes bespoke manufacturing systems for various industries, I agree with Adam on this. I would also like to point out that by the time they deliver on this the game would have moved on such is the pace of change these days I would also point out that we manufacture more in this country than ever before. The reason it is a shrinking percentage of gdp is because of the huge growth of the financial and service sector of this country, not a reduction in manufacturing.
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