| Mr Hosie made his plea after a meeting with senior management from Dundee-based wheelchair maker Lomax Mobility, which announced this week it is to close its Claverhouse factory with the loss of 95 jobs.
There was a crumb of comfort today when the firm pledged to keep its UK technical support and customer service base in Dundee — which should secure about five jobs.
He also received assurances efforts were being made to retrain staff for new jobs and long service would be factored into packages for those made redundant.
Mr Hosie said central government had to take swift action to prevent further manufacturing companies from upping sticks in Scotland and moving to low wage economies.
He said new incentives had to be built into the system to make it more economic for companies to stay put, but he also said struggling firms needed to investigate fully what help was available before they decided to close UK operations.
He said, “We have lost around 1000 manufac-turing jobs in Dundee in the last year and Scotland and the UK need to be more competitive.
“It is the responsibility of the UK government to look again at business tax — particularly corporation tax — to create the most competitive framework not simply to retain manufacturing jobs but to encourage more invest-ment in engineering and manufacturing in Dundee, Scotland and the UK.
“It is about the right competitive environment, proper investment in research and development — currently around half that of our major competitors — and the right support to turn ideas into marketable products.
“Other countries are seeing their manufac-turing bases grow and boom. We need to look at every good idea around the world, take what we can, implement them in Scotland and the UK and create the right environment but the government must start by looking again at corporation tax.”
Mr Hosie said he fully supported efforts by the business community to hold a seminar on the difficulties facing the manufacturing sector in Dundee.
He said, “I wrote today to John Hutton, Minister of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, asking him to be available for a meeting to discuss ways government can help make our manufacturing industry more competitive.
“Most manufacturing industry in Dundee is safe, based on good quality products and workforces, but we need to grow the sector and reduce the cost base.
“The government needs to take urgent action if we are not to lose more manufacturing jobs to overseas competitors.” |
