THE business secretary, John Hutton, will tomorrow outline an ambitious vision for the future of British manufacturing, saying 1m “green collar” jobs could be created in low-carbon technology.

Hutton’s statement, the first big industrial policy initiative from Labour in six years, will attempt to halt the steady shrinking of Britain’s manufacturing base and the economy’s reliance on the services sector for growth.

“I don’t buy the view that we live in a postindustrial society and that we are now only about services,” he told The Sunday Times. “People forget it, but the UK is still the world’s sixth-largest manufacturer.”

He conceded that Labour and previous administrations had not sufficiently supported industry. “We haven’t done enough,” he said. “We must not fall into the trap of thinking that the manufacturing sector doesn’t matter.”

The launch of the strategy signals the start of a political battle to seize the high ground on manufacturing. The Tories plan their own campaign, to be kicked off with a manufacturing summit in the autumn.

Senior Conservative politicians, including shadow business secretary Alan Duncan, and shadow industry minister Charles Hendry, have this year been “embedded” at Rolls-Royce, the aero-engine maker, to bone up on modern industry.

Hutton’s plan, while long on vision, is short on cash. In total, £150m will go into a range of programmes, with some of the money diverted from the budgets of regional development agencies.

Senior industrialists are also sceptical of the government’s ability to influence manufacturing’s fortunes. “These decisions are not driven by nice words from ministers,” said one chief executive.

Hutton said the government would not pick winners and support them. “There is no going back to the 1960s or 1970s,” he said.

A centrepiece of the announcement will be the creation of a Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, with Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Caterpillar and Goodrich taking part. The Energy Technologies Institute and the Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon will combine to build electric-vehicle prototypes.

The government will set aside £20m for buying low-carbon and electric vehicles for departmental fleets. Hutton said green technologies offered bright growth prospects. “Part of our strategy is to create a framework to support the low-carbon economy, which could create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade,” he said.

Ministers will attempt to tackle the negative image of manufacturing, with schools running a “manufacturing the future” campaign.

Manufacturing experts have welcomed the new policy. Lord Bhattacharyya, director of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, said: “It is great that the government has come out so strongly in support of manufacturing. We are having to make our way in a globalised industry, and Tata’s purchase of Jaguar/Land Rover is a good example of that.”

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