Our weekly focus show features an array of topics which include –

The ongoing saga of HS2. – Government minister Stephen Barclay says his gut feeling is the project WILL go ahead. The BBC says it has sent the full report which does indeed call for HS2 to be given the green light. One of the promises made by Boris Johnson during the election campaign was to “level up” the UK’s transport network and improving capacity.

Developments this week in another long running saga – The future of British Steel.
The planned sale of the business to the Chinese firm Jingye is rumoured to be on the verge of collapse, and now the Turkish industrial giant Cengiz says it is ready with a bid for British Steel if a planned sale falls through. Jingye ‘s bid which was in the region of 50-million pounds was due to completed in the coming weeks, and would save around 4-thousand jobs mainly in Scunthorpe.

The government has decided to let the Telecoms giant continue to be used in its 5G networks but with restrictions. The decision comes despite intense pressure from the US to block the firm.
It will though be banned from supplying equipment to “sensitive parts” of the network, known as the core. And it will be excluded from areas near military bases and nuclear sites.

There’s a renewed call to UK manufacturing to make 2020 the year of automation. The plea comes from the managing director of FANUC UK Tom Bouchier. He’s warning the UK needs to invest in further automation to avoid falling behind international competition. The UK is the only G7 country with a robot density below the world’s average, with just 74 units per 10,000 workers.

UK manufacturers who are expanding their workforce. And we stay In The Midlands with Coventry based SAC & Co Engineering Design Ltd.They supply engineering design and manufacturing technologies, and have taken on ten new employees since investing over £450,000 in new machinery and premises on the Binley Industrial Estate.

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