One of the pies my fingers are in is the manufacture of instruments used in the pharmaceutical and medical field. I and my investors initially drafted a proposal to take over a mothballed factory (the old LG plant in Newport South Wales). Even with government grants and subsidised rates for the first three years, we couldn’t make the numbers work.
Now we have a plant in Malaysia providing 350 jobs for local people (direct employment, many other jobs have also been created indirectly), but none of the money they earn comes anywhere near the UK economy.
I would much prefer to be able to say our products are Made In Britain, and provide jobs and tax income for the UK directly, but it’s just too expensive for us to run a manufacturing company here 🙁
The problem is further compounded by any startups who want to enter the market – everyone else is manufacturing in cheap labour markets, so they invariably have to do the same in order to survive.