21st July 2026
The appointment of a new Prime Minister inevitably brings renewed debate about the direction of the UK economy and what it could mean for business. For PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) CEO, Pinaki Banerjee, the early signals from Andy Burnham’s government are encouraging. But haven’t we been here before?
For a manufacturing business such as PP Control & Automation, the general direction is potentially favourable. But in truth, these announcements often do say all the right things.
Stronger domestic procurement, defence and energy investment, sovereign manufacturing, regional industrial policy and renewed emphasis on British supply-chain resilience could and definitely should all create opportunities.
The commercial impact will depend on whether the industrial strategy is kicked into action and opportunities become funded programmes with accessible contracts rather than broad political positioning.
The appointments of John Healey as Chancellor and Jonathan Reynolds as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade also provide some grounds for optimism.
John Healey’s understanding of defence and his apparent commitment to connecting national security investment with the reindustrialisation of Britain could prove significant for UK manufacturers and their supply chains.
Bringing business, innovation, science and trade together under Jonathan Reynolds also has the potential to create a much stronger link between research, commercialisation, industrial adoption and export growth.
However, the value of these appointments will ultimately be judged by whether they produce coordinated decisions, sustained investment and accessible opportunities for manufacturers of all sizes.
Time will tell, but the manufacturing community won’t want to be waiting around for long.
One of the UK’s leading strategic manufacturing specialists is tapping into the UK’s unprecedented investment in upgrading the electricity grid.
As Britain accelerates investment in grid infrastructure, protection and control capacity could become a critical delivery constraint.
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
Recent weeks have brought two important industry moments into sharp focus, concluding that demand for AI and automation is rising, but investment, skills, and long-term thinking must follow.
