Transport Committee announces new inquiry into transport manufacturing

The Transport Committee has launched an inquiry into how the Government can support transport manufacturing in the UK by developing and investing in the skills of its workers.

The inquiry will explore the skills required by workers in the manufacturing sectors for motor vehicles, buses, ships, aeroplanes, and trains – including in physical construction and roles linked with research, technology and design and the wider supply chain. an account will also be made of the health of these sectors. 

“The UK has a proud tradition of manufacturing motor vehicles, buses, aeroplanes, trains and ships,” said Transport Committee chair, Ruth Cadbury,

“With challenges posed by competition from abroad, technological changes and the need to reduce emissions, the Transport Committee’s new inquiry will look at the transport manufacturing workforce, how new talent can be brought in, and how today’s workers can be upskilled.”

“Fixing these problems could make the UK more attractive to inward investment from transport companies in other countries who want to import UK-made vehicles, or who’d want to set up their factories here.”

This inquiry follows a recent Government announcement that it will invest into the development and manufacture of zero-emission automotive vehicles, and after the aerospace and automotive sectors were marked for attention in the recent Modern Industrial Strategy.