We Need A Mindset Shift: GVA Over GDP
This week we delivered our open letter to Andy Burnham at Downing Street, calling for onshoring requirements on NHS and defence textile contracts, and a cross-departmental textiles task force.
Why does this matter?
Our Head of Policy, Meg Pirie tells us factories across the UK aren’t closing for lack of skill or capability, but for lack of consistent orders.
Patrick Grant, one of our signatories, is a fantastic case study. Since jumping in to save Cookson & Clegg in Blackburn, after it lost 95% of its business overnight when a military contract went offshore. Since founding Community Clothing he’s delivered over 650,000 hours of work, all kept onshore, all feeding back into the UK economy. Proof this makes business sense, not just policy sense.
That’s the shift we’ve been pushing for, thinking in terms of GVA, not just GDP. Value that reaches the workforce and the community, or as Meg put’s it, the local café.
It’s a mindset Number 10 North is engaging with too, and it aligns directly with the work we’ve done on the creative wellbeing economy.
We now look forward to hearing back from Andy Burnham.
#OnshoreOurUniforms