Patricia Hewitt has defended the government's policy on promoting the manufacturing sector.

At a TUC conference on Thursday, the trade and industry secretary unveiled a review of manufacturing strategy.

Taking on the unions, she criticised their "doom and gloom" message over the state of UK manufacturing.

She pointed to recent statistics showing there were 60,000 vacancies in the sector in the second quarter of the year.

"What chance do we have of filling these, of recruiting the engineers and technicians of the future, if all young people ever hear is doom and gloom about the sector," she said.

Hewitt said that the original manufacturing strategy had achieved "a great deal", and pledged that a new Manufacturing Forum would "drive forward the priorities identified in the review of the strategy and act as a strong voice for industry, reflecting its vital importance to our economy".

A revised action plan will focus on issues such as promoting science and innovation, encouraging intelligent public procurement, and promoting best practice.

"Of course, I recognise that championing the best will not, on its own, overcome some of the problems of the rest," said Hewitt.

"Unions and manufacturers want the government to 'put its money where its mouth is' and I understand that.

"But through our manufacturing strategy - delivered in partnership with unions and industry, with today's review of that strategy, and with our recent spending settlement - that is exactly what we are doing."

Indicating the importance ministers are attaching to the sector, Hewitt was joined by industry minister Jacqui Smith, skills minister Ivan Lewis and Treasury economic secretary John Healey.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber and Amicus general secretary Derek Simpson were also among the speakers.

And the CBI warned ministers that they would not be let "off the hook" on manufacturing.

"The UK has a great manufacturing history and though there are challenges, I see no reason why we can't go on to secure a great manufacturing future," said Nick Brayshaw, chairman of the CBI's manufacturing council.

"It is true that doom-and-gloom rhetoric is bad for the reputation of the sector, but that does not mean we should let the government off the hook.

"There is plenty more that could be done, including ending the feast-and-famine approach to public procurement and giving medium-size companies the same support given to small firms."

And the TUC's Brendan Barber also said that more should be done.

"Overall, the government has delivered unprecedented economic stability, but this masks a two-speed economy. Full-speed ahead in services, but rather too much of manufacturing stuck in reverse," he said.

"It's hardly a surprise that the public image of manufacturing is so downbeat, and I agree that this is a major concern.

"We must change the perception of manufacturing, especially among young people. We must try to replicate the positive attitude seen in countries like Germany and Japan."

Declining fortunes

The conference came a day after new figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that manufacturing jobs have continued to decline.

Manufacturing employment when Labour took office in 1997 stood at 4.2 million, but by January of this year this had fallen to 3.4 million.

That data prompted the Liberal Democrats to warn that manufacturing jobs have hit the lowest point since records began in 1978.

"Manufacturing job losses strike at the heart of local communities and small scale factory closures can have as detrimental an effect as the high-profile collapses that make news headlines," said employment spokesman Paul Holmes.

"More must be done to help the real economy of our towns and rural areas, rather than allowing manufacturing jobs to continue to haemorrhage.

"The government's indifference to the thousands of jobs going to the wall is shocking."

And Kevin Curran, general secretary of the GMB union, also had harsh words for Hewitt after she pointed to the number of vacancies in the sector.

"Patricia Hewitt needs to spend less time talking shop in her department and more time on the shop floor," he said.

"Nobody who knows or cares about the decline in the manufacturing base in this country could have come out with something so blatantly misleading

"It's all very well to point to 58,000 vacancies as a good thing for the manufacturing industry, but let's bear in mind that manufacturing lost another 8,000 employees in April 2004, adding up to 106,000 job losses in the preceding year."

He added that the DTI and its ministers "should be ashamed that nearly a million jobs in manufacturing have been lost".

"To stop the decline, Britain needs to grow its manufacturing industry and nurture its workforce, as governments do successfully across Europe," he added.

"We need intervention, we need state aid raised up to the EU average and we need the government to create a level playing field for procurement."