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Stephen Timms MPTextile & Clothing Industry |
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| Thank you, Wendy for your kind introduction. And thank you for giving me the privilege of opening the second annual conference of the Textiles and Clothing Industry Forum. I am delighted to be here.
This is my first textiles and clothing event, but I recognise the importance of your industry in our economy. My constituency is East Ham in East London, which is home to a significant fashion and retailing cluster, and to Newham College, which is highly regarded for its design and fashion courses. There was a good deal of pride locally earlier this year when the Prime Minister and his wife bought suits for their visit to India from a designer in Green Street in my constituency, Babs Mahill a former pupil of Little Ilford School where I was a Governor. I recently attended the Green Street Partnership Fashion Show, which showed off a great display of talent celebrating the vibrant multicultural character of the area, which is being translated now into much needed commercial success in textiles and clothing. So I am looking forward to becoming more involved with and gaining a much better understanding of this important industry and how we can maximise its potential in the years ahead. This industry has had to endure enormous upheaval in recent years, but it contributed 0.7% of UK GDP in the year 2000. It employs around a quarter of a million people. Last year industry exports were worth £6.5 Billion. This is a very, very important part of the UK economy. But we all know that it continues to face huge challenges. Today, I want to use this opportunity to do three things: Firstly, to congratulate the Industry Forum (IF) on its achievements so far and to wish it well for another successful conference and another successful year. Secondly, to announce the publication of the Textile and Clothing Strategy Group's second report: Making It Happen and to commend it to you. And Thirdly, to say something about the changing shape of my Department – the DTI - and to re-iterate the government's commitment to work with this important manufacturing sector to ensure it prospers in the global economy. The Industry Forum Let me turn first to the Industry Forum, which itself came about as a direct result of the Textile and Clothing National Strategy. The Strategy highlighted that good supply chain management was vital in an industry driven by the need for quick and flexible responses to changing customer demand. The Forum was developed by the industry, and it operates in every area of the textiles and clothing supply chain. It aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of interfaces and processes within the chain by identifying and disseminating best practice, and our view is that it is succeeding. A total of six projects have so far been completed. 14 more are up and running, and several more are in the pipeline. It is operating across an impressive range of issues with some very tangible results:
And the Forum is operating at all levels of the market. From improving quality control processes for high fashion on the high street to improved production planning processes for designer fashion off the catwalk. The results of these projects, and today's impressive programme, show that a more integrated manufacturing process – retailers involved in manufacturing; manufacturers responsive to changing markets and consumer demands – that that integration is critical if the sector is to succeed. I know you will be hearing more about some of these initiatives later today, and I hope you will conclude as I have done that the Industry Forum has made an important contribution in challenging the more traditional "make, stock, sell" mentality that used to prevail in the industry. I am delighted to see that this important initiative has so much support from across the industry. The potential for this project is massive. I hope that you - the industry - will continue to support it, so that it can realise its full potential. TCSG Report: Making it Happen My second task this morning is to announce - with great pleasure - the publication of the Textile and Clothing Strategy Group's second report - Making It Happen. This second builds on the great success of the, which was published 2 years ago (in June 2000) and contained 55 recommendations aimed at enhancing the industry's competitiveness. Today's report charts the progress on those recommendations – including the 34 that were aimed at government - and sets out the challenges that lie ahead. The Strategy Group is an excellent example of effective partnership, bringing together employers, academics, trade unions and the government for the benefit of this industry. The defining characteristics of the Group have been its simple, straightforward approach, the spirit of co-operation and consensus it has engendered in the industry and its ability to bring minds together to focus on a common task. Great credit is due to the industry for devising and implementing a coherent strategy to address the issues determining its competitive future, and for acknowledging that the the industry itself holds the keys to long term, sustained success. And I am very pleased that we were able in Government to make a positive response to all the recommendations in the Strategy which fell to us, as well as supporting a number of additional initiatives to help the sector meet its challenges. The benefits have been very significant. They have included:
We have also commissioned a benchmarking study for the clothing industry and we are supporting work aimed at helping UK companies compete for public sector contracts. All told, since 1997, the government has invested over £80 million in the textile and clothing industry. We have also improved communications to the sector by:
It has been a very positive by-product of the Textile and Clothing Strategy Group initiative that there is a much better regional interface and a much better spirit of partnership following publication of the Strategy. The recently formed London Fashion Forum, which is uniting the diverse range of London-based business support organisations working in the sector is an excellent example of this new co-operation. The Textile and Clothing Group's own Regional Network is playing an important role. It includes Government Offices, Regional Development Agencies, Regional Business Support Organisations and industry representatives. It plays an important part in promoting the National Strategy to the regions; and facilitating dialogue and collaboration. So a great deal has been achieved. But there remain immense challenges ahead. There is no let up in prospect in the relentless pressure on the industry arising from globalisation. And we are determined to continue our work alongside you to build a prosperous future for the industry. James McAdam in his foreword to today's report makes the point that this sector is by no means the only one in the UK facing these pressures of globalisation. But, he says: "what makes our industry stand apart is the clear strategy we have put in place and the partnerships we have created to help implement our objectives and improve our competitiveness". I think he is right about that and I commend this report to you. DTI Challenges and Changes There are big challenges for you in all of this, but there are challenges for government too - and for my Department in particular. We need to be more responsive, and better able to support you and other players. So we have been carrying out a comprehensive review of our role and our work, and we are changing our internal organisation to put a greater focus on our relationship with our customers - through our sector teams, through our Regional Development Agency network in England, and through our network of Business Links across England. We have simplified our organisation to focus on our key tasks, to make it easier to get hold of the right contacts quickly, and to help us respond better and faster to new developments as they arise. We also want to make our support for business more effective – better focussed on improving business productivity. So over the next year we shall be taking forward a major programme to overhaul and simplify the business support we offer – building on the best features of the existing programmes. We are committed to continuing to work with the sector so that the UK industry can emerge best placed to command a competitive advantage in the global, knowledge driven economy which is developing around us. I want to express my thanks to you for your willingness to work with us and with others in the industry on this shared agenda. I am looking forward to getting to know this industry well in the months ahead, and contributing to the success which we all know can be ours. I wish you well for a fruitful and successful day. Thank you. |
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Other speeches by Stephen Timms MP
(the following are available from the archive) |
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