Welcome to the Defence Industry NW 2010 Conference and to Manchester....

The region’s defence industry is a front line service. It provides the nation’s deterrent, air defence capability, keeps the sea lanes open and protects our forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Today is the first time that the region’s trade unions, industry and political leaders have come together in Manchester to debate the way forward for defence, one of the NW’s most successful industries.

The sector supports 17,000 jobs across the region, 6,000 of these are employed in firms in my own area, Cumbria.

Many of the region’s defence success stories are small businesses.

Let me tell you about just one of them, Armourshield, here in Manchester.

They are one of Britain’s longest established body armour makers with only 20 staff. They deliver vital protection with 805 of their products being exported.

In your information packs you will fund much more detail about the importance of the defence sector locally.

It includes specialist test facilities, training areas, thousands of civilian jobs in for example the Defence Bills Agency in Liverpool, as well as Lancashire’s fixed wing military aircraft manufacturing.

Britain faces some significant challenges in the months and years ahead.  All political parties are pointing to the need for tough choices to be made about where public spending changes should occur.

Most are committed to protecting front line services.

Today UNITE’s Bernie Hamilton will make the case why investment in the defence industrial base and its skills is an investment in a front line service.

There is a real need to sustain the capability to design and build equipment, facilitate upgrades and deliver through life support when it is needed. That means finding the necessary resources to invest for the long term and in long term partnering.

We have started to see the benefits from this approach in the naval surface ship market. It may make sense to roll it out into aerospace as well. This afternoon Rand Europe will tell us about the new study they have underway for the MoD on this very topic.

The industry needs guaranteed workloads and funding from government.

With that in place I would argue that you in the defence industry will have the confidence to invest, you as young graduates will more likely choose to make a long term career in the industry and those in the front line of our armed forces will know they will receive first class support.

The Defence Policy Green Paper published last month promises a defence review after the general election. It asks should Britain retain its expeditionary and deterrent capability, should we work more closely with other nations, develop our own or buy in equipment from abroad.

I am firmly of the view that we need a strong indigenous industry. In times of crisis you cannot always rely on other nations. It is a view that we have seen widespread support for amongst the public when lobbying with KOFAC.

So it’s is thanks to our sponsors UNITE and GMB trade unions, ably supported by BAE Systems, Cammell Laird, Ametek, Simpsons and NWDA that we have been able to organise today’s Conference so you can hear local, regional, national and international views on these issues.

It gives us an opportunity to define the clear messages we want to deliver to the present and next government about the importance of investing in the defence industrial base of Britain.