Business and Commerce are at the heart of the north-west and the region has long cultivated the entrepeneurial spirit. But it is manufacturing in particular which has become synonymous with east Lancs. Indeed it is difficult to separate the area from its industrial heritage and its manufacturing roots.  At the turn of the 1900s two thirds of the total workforce were engaged in manufacturing with 75% working in the cotton industry alone.

Manufacturing remains central to the economy of the region with over half a million people employed in the sector, contributing around 25% of the region's GDP.

The importance of manufacturing in Hyndburn cannot be understated, with around 25% of all employees involved in manufacturing compared to the national average of around 14 percent.

The importance of manufacturing to the region becomes clear when you consider its wider economic impact as the source of wealth and job creation. This occurs as support industries service the manufacturing core. This can be seen for example in the growth of sectors such as outsourcing and logistics and distribution.

Much of manufacturing's payments in wages and salaries and capital investments flow back into local communities. This provides further employment opportunities for all manner of ancilliary sectors. It has been estimated that every production industry job in Lancashire carries at least another one on its back in one way or another (source Peter Kivell  Lancashire County Council Environment Directorate).

Looking at the manufacturing profile more closely it is plain that the region no longer relies on textiles; but Hyndburn still seems to operate on a lower wage base. Hyndburn manufacturing wages are still some 15% below the UK manufacturing average, only Blackpool and Rossendale have lower manufacturing wage levels in Lancashire. This would seem to indicate a lower tech (as opposed to high tech) lower value, manufacturing model.

This would suggest that the lower value manufacturing jobs in the area are susceptible to threat from competition from an increasingly hostile global market driven by the low wage economies.

This threat is further amplified by the comparatively low productivity demonstrated by UK manufacturing. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has calculated that manufacturing productivity is 55% higher in the United States, 32% higher in France and 29% higher in Germany. This is not to say that manufacturing industry is not productive - manufacturing productivity is 25% higher than in the rest of the economy - it is simply that UK productivity is substantially lower than our overseas competitiors.

It is argued by the Government that this productivity defecit should be seen as a major economic opportunity rather than a weakness.

The Japanese successfully defended their car industry from the Korean challenge throughout the 1990s. They did this through innovation and, above all, significant increases in effeciency.

This is a challenge that the industrial and commercial base of Hyndburn may now have to accept.