LONDON – Fashion Roundtable, an industry think tank, is calling on Britain’s new prime minister Andy Burnham to support local textile manufacturers by awarding key public contracts to companies that manufacture onshore, in the U.K.
Britain, once a mighty textile maker, offshored its manufacturing decades ago to save money. Clothing for National Health Service and military staff may be sourced from U.K. suppliers, but much of it is made in Bangladesh, Pakistan and China.
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Fashion Roundtable’s open letter to Burnham, whch has signatories from across the industry, also asks for a meeting with the prime minister before the details of his Number 10 North devolution plans are finalized.
Burnham served for years as mayor Manchester, and is determined to make U.K. government less London-centric and devolve power to cities and regions across the country.
The Fashion Roundtable letter argues that procurement is the “fastest and most practical way” to deliver on the commitments that Burnham has made around “decentralization, reindustrialization and rebalancing power” away from London and towards the regions.
The letter calls for the introduction of onshoring requirements in public contracts for textile goods, beginning with defense and NHS uniforms.
It also calls for the establishment of a dedicated manufacturing and textiles task force to unify “fragmented policy” across the various government departments that are dealing with uniform suppliers and manufacturers.
Tamara Cincik, CEO of Fashion Roundtable, said the letter is a culmination of many years’ work, and her close observation of the way the government operates. It also dovetails with the findings of a report on the opportunities in U.K. fashion and textiles industry, published in April by Fashion Roundtable in partnership with the University of Birmingham’s Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub.
Cincik said that “during the pandemic I saw a total fiasco in the procurement of vitally needed PPE. Kate Hills [founder and CEO of Make it British] and I were asked by the then-government to attend regular calls on public procurement and it was clear to both of us that the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing.”
She added that the chaos could be avoided “if public procurement is brought back onshore. Not only for the jobs and income it brings back to Britain, but also to ensure greater transparency, reduce waste and stabilise British manufacturing.”
Hills said the letter’s “single biggest ask is a British-made requirement in public contracts for textile goods. Crucially, the [contracts] must specify where products are manufactured, not just where the winning company is registered, otherwise the work will carry on going offshore through U.K.-based middlemen.”
Fashion Roundtable’s April report said the barrier to keeping U.K. factories open is not due to a lack of skills or capability, but that fashion and textiles fall into a “policy gap” between creative
industries and manufacturing, which has allowed the sector to lose ground to its peers from other creative industries.
“This leaves the industry exposed to short-term policy interventions and weak coordination across national, devolved, and local levels.
The biggest lever we have to support skills retention, inclusive growth and regional resilience is awarding public procurement contracts for textile goods to suppliers who manufacture onshore in the U.K.,” the report added.
Fashion Roundtable said it is dedicated to “reimagining a creative and responsible fashion industry. Its team is drawn from fashion, industry, economics, academia and politics, and it aims to deliver independent, evidence-based research and policy roadmaps for the sector.
