North Staffordshire is globally renowned for its rich heritage in ceramics, with beloved household names like Wedgwood and Duchess China producing bespoke tableware for hundreds of years.
While we are proud of the Potteries’ history, we must look with ambition to our future. Our region is the engine behind the UK’s advanced ceramics industry – mission-critical components that are vital to our competitiveness in defence, aerospace, electronics and nuclear energy.
Advanced ceramics are critical, yet often discreet components in the supply chain for Foundational Industries. Put simply, we cannot manufacture steel, aluminium, glass or bricks without ceramics. Advanced ceramics are the backbone to countless key industries, the success of which rely on the sustainability of our advanced ceramics sector.
Materials like zirconia, silicon nitride, alumina and silicon carbide operate at extreme temperatures where others fail. They are indispensable to our national security and high-tech capabilities.
Consider Boron Carbide, for example, a critical material for moderating nuclear reactors and creating ballistic-resistant armour. Or Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics, which are used in rocket nozzles, nosecones and the leading edges of wings and stabilisers on hypersonic missiles and thrust diverters.
From the ceramic coatings that allow aero-engines to operate at peak efficiency, to the biocompatible ceramics used for dental implants and bone replacements, to ceramic bricks and clay roof tiles which we need to build — advanced ceramics are everywhere.
I was therefore delighted when the Industrial Strategy officially recognised ceramics as a Foundation Industry. Nowhere is this capability more evident than in my constituency.
Our advanced ceramics cluster in North Staffordshire is a hub of innovation. Companies like Mantec are producing ceramic molten metal filters used by Rolls-Royce in civil and defence aviation. Similarly, Rolls Royce in Trentham manufacture the complex ceramic cores required for investment casting in gas turbine engines.
Further afield, in a neighbouring constituency, Lucideon is paving the way in applied advanced ceramics materials science for the nuclear, construction, defence and energy sectors.
Despite our manufacturing expertise, economic growth in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire has lagged behind other regions. With Government investment, we have the potential to change this and deliver real economic growth by cementing North Staffordshire as the UK’s primary cluster for advanced ceramics.
We sit on the A50/500 Growth Corridor, a crucial supply chain corridor that connects manufacturers in North Staffordshire to the East Midlands. We are also home to the AMRICC centre, the UK centre of excellence for advance ceramics, which provides open-access space to test new technologies.
However, realising our true potential requires us to confront a significant hurdle: rising energy costs and decarbonisation. Ceramics is the hardest energy-intensive industry to decarbonise. The sector relies on high-temperature gas-fired tunnel kilns which cannot easily be converted to electric without significant capital investment.
To address this, I have been working with the TUC on our proposal for a Decarbonisation Innovation Fund. This would offer capital loans and grants to help firms invest in clean technologies.
But I believe we can go further. There is immense potential in offering ‘Innovation Vouchers’, smaller grants or loans, to SMEs and tableware companies to trial innovative technology alongside traditional grants and investment.
Smaller firms cannot shoulder the operational costs or the risks of testing hydrogen firing, electric kilns, or process optimisation at larger sites alone. Production is sensitive; a single kiln failure can destroy a batch worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
‘Innovation Vouchers’ would allow SMEs to access world-class facilities at sites like AMRICC and Lucideon to trial low-carbon processes in a de-risked environment, through collaborative R&D and grants for operational costs.
I also believe there is huge potential in AI to improve energy efficiency. Lucideon is using AI to analyse kiln temperature data, optimizing firing curves to reduce gas consumption. Innovation Vouchers could allow firms to trial this technology, offering an innovative solution to energy consumption.
Support for this industry would also support our beloved traditional ceramics. Traditional ceramics drove industrialisation and wealth in North Staffordshire, and cross-working between traditional and advanced ceramics is growing, with traditional ceramics creating a skills pipeline into advanced.
Innovation is being embraced by the sector. Mantec produces refractories that improve thermal insulation in kilns, helping other industries, both ceramic and non-ceramic, to reduce their energy use. Mantec also manufacture ceramic cross membrane filters which can separate solids from liquids to de-water valuable materials and extract critical minerals, ensuring environmental compliance when wastewater is discharged.
These are stellar examples of local innovation. However, replacing existing infrastructure and machinery requires significant capital that our SMEs simply do not have. With the right investment in infrastructure and skills, North Staffordshire can become a world-leading growth hub. By supporting the transition to low-carbon manufacturing through collaborative R&D and targeted funding, we can secure the future of this vital industry, and with it, the economic future of North Staffordshire.
Investing in infrastructure and skills will ensure North Staffordshire’s world-leading advanced ceramics industry will flourish
