Rotherham businesses must “forge the modern reindustrialisation of Britain,” says John Healey

Chancellor John Healey has called for South Yorkshire to fly the flag for British businesses around the world as he spoke at a visit to a world-leading engineering firm on Friday.

The MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough toured the AES Engineering facility at Bradmarsh Business Park, guest speaking at a reliability conference onsite.

Addressing the crowd, he said: “I can’t tell you how proud I am as a local MP of this company.

“It is a global, market leading business that flies the flag for British manufacturing around the world, and still with more than half of its assets and new investment here in Rotherham.”

The ‘factory for the future’ site employs dozens of local people and serves as a beacon of sustainable engineering for South Yorkshire.

The company itself employs over 2000 people across locations all around the world, but remains headquartered from Rotherham.

Chancellor Healey said: “Britain has always done best when we’ve designed and made the things the rest of the world wants.

“I believe ASE Engineering shows that we can and are again leading in this new era of robotics, advanced manufacturing and AI.

“Just as South Yorkshire helped build the past industrial strength of Britain, so again today we help it forge the modern reindustrialisation of Britain.”

In last week’s budget, the government outlined plans for a new local apprenticeship service and a local AI partnership, with the Chancellor announcing that the latter “will be developed first here in South Yorkshire”.

He congratulated AES Engineering for how they have extended apprenticeships throughout Rotherham, including through schemes in AI.

He said: “We’ve also got a company reinforcing its long-term investment in this, its town, its home.”

“These are great new British engineers, tackling an industrial problem, creating jobs in Rotherham and this country and also offering the potential solutions that the rest of the world can take up.”

The Chancellor toured the manufacturing site and spoke to managing director Chris Rea, who himself reiterated the importance of the company to the town.

He said: “We are the last man standing in the UK in our field.”

Speaking to the Advertiser following his visit, Chancellor Healey expanded on government plans to help young people in Rotherham get into work, referring to fixing youth unemployment rates as “a moral duty”.

He said: “One of the deep shames of this country is that for a number of years now we’ve had almost a million young people under 25 who aren’t working not in education or in training and the majority of them have never worked.”

The current youth unemployment rate is around 15 per cent, and the government is currently developing a plan to tackle this.

“I said in the budget last week that we will set out the policy plan as soon as possible.

“We have a schedule of big changes we want to bring in to offer support and opportunities to take the first steps.

The Chancellor explained that new measures will include encouraging work experience to build skills, and pushing young people generally toward technical pursuits from earlier in life.

During his tour of the AES Engineering factory, the Chancellor spoke to several apprentices at the company, and reiterated the importance of technical skills.

He said: “They’re learning, they’re earning and they’re picking up skills which they can take anywhere in the world.”

“What I’m proud about is that there are those opportunities here in Rotherham for those kids in South Yorkshire, and they don’t need to leave to get them.”

We also asked the Chancellor about policing issues in parts of Rotherham, such as in Dinnington where local children have reportedly set vehicles alight and harassed businesses.

He said: “Our method and arrangements for policing have not changed since the 1960s. It makes sense to try to see policing evolve for the threat of those kinds of crimes.”

Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley told the BBC today that policing in England and Wales was “heading for failure” without reform, and proposed a system of eight to ten large regional forces supported by smaller policing commands.

When asked whether the government would support change, Chancellor Healey said: “I think you should expect the government to continue with those reforms.

“We’ll be making sure, as we have for the past two years, that our South Yorkshire Police force get increasing resources.”

The Chancellor also addressed comments by Rotherham Hospice CEO Mat Cottle-Shaw, who wrote an open letter earlier this week asking the government to provide more financial support for palliative care nationally.

In the letter, Mr Cottle-Shaw asks the Chancellor to support Hospice UK’s ‘Fair Funding’ model which would give an extra £122.5m per year to hospices nationally, following Rotherham Hospice projecting a £525,000 deficit by the end of the year.

“You can’t live and have your home in Rotherham for years like we have for years and not know how much Rotherham Hospice matters to us.

“I have friends who have passed in the hospice and they do a phenomenal job

In 2024 the government announced £26m in additional funding for hospice care annually, but Mr Cottle-Shaw believes more must be done.

Chancellor Healey said: “This government will, as we’ve always done, listen to what they’ve got to say and take the judgments that we can.

“I will continue to do what I have always done which is to raise funds for Rotherham Hospice as a local resident and a local MP.”