The latest announcement of cuts at Victoria Carpets brings yet more uncertainty to staff locally. Victoria’s announcement follows closely on the heels of Brinton’s similar announcement a couple of weeks ago. This once proud industry, that employed over 20,000 people locally, has now just a few hundred making carpets in Wyre Forest.

The decline of the carpet industry has its roots in our membership of the Common Market. By opening our market to continental manufacturers, cheap imports from Belgium undercut the local product and the results are all too clear for us to see here in Wyre Forest. But this very local decline highlights the challenges facing us. As we emerge from the EU, we will be looking to increase our trade activities across the world, with new trade deals encouraging greater international trade.

As Kidderminster’s carpet industry demonstrates with the Common Market (and subsequent EU) relations, we face a dilemma: Do we protect our home grown interests; or do we offer greater consumer choice to British buyers? Because that is the hard fact we face. We, rightly, lament the decline of our proud industry here in Wyre Forest, but most of us will have carpets in our homes and offices that we might not otherwise have afforded had it not been for cheaper imports from the EU, or the rest of the world. As we look around our homes, we have Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean technology; we have Swedish furniture; we enjoy a wide range of products in supermarkets from across the globe; our clothes are made in the far East. And on it goes. Consumer choice is something that we all enjoy, but the price of choice is greater international competition for home grown industries.

Our economy is a highly developed one and we now employ nearly 3 million people in the advanced manufacturing sector, making anything from cars to space craft. We are world leaders in advanced engineering. That is why we need to embrace advanced manufacturing here in Wyre Forest. This opportunity is the right thing for us to do and we must grab the greater productivity and wealth that advanced manufacturing brings. I am heartbroken that Kidderminster’s carpet industry – the finest in the world – is all but consigned to history. We must help those affected and find new jobs as soon as possible. But we must face the opportunity the future brings with enthusiasm.