The Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, recently visited the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield, where he made what he said would be his last public speech before the General Election.

He was given a tour of the AMRC ‘cluster’ by Nuclear AMRC chief executive Mike Tynan and AMRC executive dean Professor Keith Ridgway. During his visit, he took part in a panel discussion with leading figures from advanced engineering and regional businesses.

Responding to questions from the audience, Mr Carney emphasised the importance of “the UK’s borders remaining open to recruits from abroad”. He said that gifted foreign students who come to the University of Sheffield and the AMRC, then stay on to work in Sheffield, are helping to create the advanced manufacturing techniques that lead to future jobs.

Mr Carney went on to praise the AMRC as “a prime example of Sheffield’s continuing spirit of hard work and innovation. No one knows better than you that manufacturing needs to become ever more productive to prosper in a world of steadily falling prices and relentless international competition.

“Prices for advanced manufactured goods fell on average by around 1% a year during the decade before the economic crisis of 2008. They have also fallen steadily relative to those of simpler manufactured products — by 30% over the last two decades — reflecting superior productivity growth.

“Your customers and society as a whole are the beneficiaries of your doing much more with less. The strong recovery of UK manufacturing over the past year is a testament to the sector’s focus on continual improvement.

"R&D on manufactured products has grown by a quarter since the mid-1980s and currently accounts for well over two-thirds of total UK spending on innovation. Advanced manufacturing sectors, including pharmaceutical, aerospace and automotive, represents well over half of this amount.”

The Governor’s trip coincided with the publication of Building Futures — a new book celebrating the achievements of the whole of the AMRC. It marks the 10th anniversary of the completion of the first AMRC building on the Advanced Manufacturing Park.