Published NW Evening Mail, 5 March 2010

IN very challenging circumstances with major redundancies especially in the 1990s, and high levels of people without a job, the excellent work done in the Furness area by local authorities, Furness Enterprise, companies, Barrow Regeneration and others has helped power the Furness economy to significant success.

Independent research by the well respected economic consultancy, Ekosgen, in developing their North West Index of Economic Resilience showed that out of all the North West Local Authority areas, Barrow was the top improver in Enterprise in the period 1997-2007 with South Lakeland as one of the Top Five local economies in Enterprise in 2007.

Barrow was also the top improver in economic dynamism in 2007. We can also all see the substantial
improvements in our infrastructure coming from the significant investments made in the Furness area. However, we obviously still need “plenty of power” to deal with the substantial challenges we face with large numbers of people without work, recent job losses and high levels of deprivation. Hence it is critical we have the resources to continue to:

1. Provide effective support to businesses to help them safeguard and create jobs, from large employers such as BAE Systems to individuals setting up a new business.
2. Invest in regeneration in our infrastructure with for example the new “Barrow Energy Coast” Business Park, new Marina and Marina Village and ensure we have new factories and workshops to facilitate companies’ expansions and inward investment.
3. Help people who have been made redundant/are unemployed to get back into work.
4. Capitalise on the skills and assets we have in advanced and process engineering while building upon the new skills being developed in the service sector with companies like Liberata and Agilisys.

Powering to Success is particularly appropriate this week (week commencing March 1) because the theme of this week across the UK is Making Manufacturing our Future and our own Trade Union led Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign has a very important Defence Industry NW 2010 Conference at the end of the week. The UK is still the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world (and the UK Defence Industry is a major contributor here), its productivity has grown by 50 per cent since 1997 and UK
manufacturing accounts for 55 per cent of all UK exports. However one of the key requirements for UK manufacturing industry to remain competitive is cost effective, secure energy supplies.

To assist in achieving this objective Furness Enterprise has been working with gas storage developers, the civil nuclear industry supply chain, wind farm developers (where limited opportunities exist) and on energy efficiency projects particularly with ultra efficient solid state lighting manufacturers in the Furness area. 20 per cent of Britain’s electricity generation is currently used to light homes and businesses.

Research has shown that by substituting say half the UK’s existing conventional lighting with solid state lighting (particularly that manufactured in the UK) energy consumption and hence energy bills can be reduced substantially (50 per cent), reducing the looming UK energy gap and enabling the UK’s existing energy resources such as North Sea Gas to last longer.

Powering to Success in the Furness economy depends on continuing to do well what has been successful in regenerating the Furness economy while exploiting new opportunities in, for instance, our all important manufacturing industry through encouraging the adoption of Furness and UK-based solid state lighting.

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