According to an article in The Times this morning, a Government initiative to bring advanced manufacturing work back to Britain will create or safeguard nearly 4,000 jobs.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable will announce tomorrow that spending from less than a quarter of the £245 million Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative will create nearly 1,400 jobs and maintain a further 2,500.

The figures come as the engineering and manufacturing bosses’ trade body releases research that indicates more companies are bringing back production to the UK.

According to Lee Hopley, Chief Economist at EEF, manufacturers are bringing back work to the UK because the speedy delivery of products to high customer specification is outranking output sourced from lower-cost economies.

Ms Hopley said “It is for some a question of flexibility and responsiveness against having a supply chain thousands of miles away.

On another positive note, it was great to read that UK manufacturing grew faster than expected in February, with employment in the sector expanding at its fastest rate since May 2011.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said the sharp rise in job creation should also support the broader economic recovery.

“We should expect another quarter of robust economic growth in the opening quarter of the year,” he added.