Chemical industry claims 5% growth
27 Jun 2014
The UK chemical industry is on course to achieve 5% growth in 2014, the boss of the sector’s trade body claimed last night.
Chemical Industries Association (CIA) chief executive Steve Elliott said this year’s anticipated growth of the £60 billion chemical sector was driven by increased demand from key customer industries such as automotive, aerospace and construction.
Unifying the north of England into one economic force would be a huge boon to the chemical sector
CIA chief executive Steve Elliott
Elliott was speaking at his organisation’s awards ceremony in Manchester just a few days after chancellor George Osborne had delivered a speech in the same city on his desire to create a “Northern Powerhouse” through the creation of infrastructure such as the HS2 rail link.
The CIA boss said unifying the north of England into one economic force would be a huge boon to the chemical sector.
“For too long, unnecessary competing against each other has delivered one of the greatest unfulfilled potentials of our generation as city and region fought against city and region,” said Elliott.
“And I agree with [the chancellor] that the north is blessed with outstanding universities that are leading the way in terms of cooperation between academia and industry. Science here in the north, should be turned into the growth here in the north.
“I now want to hold the Government to account on this by getting them to move quickly and see their words turn into action. If we do this then the Country will have the best chance it has ever had to rebuild our supply chains and sustain manufacturing’s recent recovery and growth through more UK chemistry .”
