Green-eyed vision

The UK government has unveiled 'New Challenges, New Opportunities', a strategy to help UK firms take advantage of changing global trends in manufacturing.

The strategy brings together almost £150m of medium-term support for UK manufacturing and sets out the government's view of what the sector needs for success in the long term.

It includes seizing the opportunities of the low-carbon economy, which in the next decade could see up to 260,000 jobs created in the nuclear and renewable energy sectors alone, and supporting skills via the creation 1,500 new manufacturing apprenticeships.

Similarly, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) will allocate additional resources to target a package of support for 600 UK companies to identify manufacturing value chain opportunities in India and China.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) will advise on using and protecting IP in these markets.

In the West Midlands, a new Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry will have industrial-scale pre-production and demonstration facilities, which could lead to £130m of investment in business-led applied research and its exploitation over the next 10 years.