In the news: April 26

What effect will party politics have on industry? That’s the question manufacturers are asking themselves.

But, take two on Election Live and still the majority party leaders have outlined few policies on industry, innovation and UK production.

Nick Clegg was the only leader to refer to manufacturing in the live debate telling us he visited a company in his constituency that made mine rollers: heavy equipment fitted to the front of military vehicles and which are designed to trigger IEDs so they do not kill and injure personnel.

There was no other mention.

Those with a vested interest in industry, however, can at least begin to relate to each party's policies.

One Daily Mail blogger said imports should be taxed at 50% to make domestic manufacturing competitive again. Read more here.

Policy facts

In spite of blanket coverage in the media, those working in the industry are still looking for evidence that the main political parties have any serious plans to rebalance the economy, emphasising the importance of manufacturing and engineering industries.

All three main parties talk about how our engineers, construction firms, car manufacturers and scientists can help the country pay down the crippling debt burden accumulated since the banking system imploded.

Helping companies through the recovery has been cited as a priority by all the major parties. Election2010 – party policies for business.

The Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF), however, told thisismoney.co.uk that the three main parties' manifestos don't go anywhere near far enough.

Labour promises to 'rebuild our industrial base', and has a few eye-catching policies such as setting up the £4bn 'finance for growth fund'.

This encourages firms to invest through research and development tax credits, with the promise of 1m skilled jobs by 2015 in cutting edge sectors such as low-carbon, digital and creative industries.

And Labour party's manifesto pointed to the importance of industry saying it "understands the defence industry supports a huge amount of manufacturing expertise, design and technology, and highly skilled engineering."

Unemployment and defence

Many votes will rest on who can best secure jobs. The question is, will they be safer under Gordon Brown than under the Lib Dems?

Businesszone.co.uk reported that executives at the country's defence companies admit privately a Liberal Democrat victory would be the worst possible outcome for their businesses, with thousands of jobs at risk from their proposals.

For example, the defence budget (currently £40bn) will surely be cut. Defence is a £35bn industry and Britain is number two in the world for exports. Northwest aerospace giant, BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence company, employs 40,400 people in the UK and would surely be hit by any cuts.

Meanwhile Babcock, the engineering services employs about 17,000.

Whichever party wins, defence companies will feel the pain. Not good news for the Northwest.

Industry body ADS has questioned whether "future cuts in public expenditure should come from other departments given the fact that defence has already made its contribution to savings over two decades."

Energy for the future

When it comes to Nuclear power, the LibDems drive to do away with new atomic power stations isn’t industry friendly. But could their pledge to 57,000 new jobs in wind turbine factories readdress the balance? Nuclear however, is still high on the agenda for Labour and the Tories.

Exports

Driving exports is something the Tories regularly flag up talking about Britain being the leading hi-tech exporter in Europe by pushing through key recommendations from a report by vacuum entrepreneur Sir James Dyson.

Cameron suggest skills focus on science, technology, engineering and maths, and tweaking R&D tax credits to refocus them on hi-tech companies.

Who will industry vote for?

An EEF spokesman told businesszone there have been some recent signals that the Labour government is keen to rediscover its industrial roots. But it looks like a case of too little, too late.

Clarity when it comes to benefits to business is rare, nothing radical is really being put forward. And EEF are calling for just that.

The spokesman added: 'Clearly as a nation we have forgotten how to pay our way in the world, and places like China and India are now making everything while we (Britain) are providing banking services.'

We know the manufacturing sector has fallen from (from 20.4% in 1997 of GDP to 13.5% of economic output by 2009), and that people employed in the sector is down. But Britain is still the sixth biggest manufacturing nation in the world, according to United Nations.

Whatever each manifesto promises, a new industrial revolution won't just materialise overnight when the polls close on May 6.

Have your say on how the election with impact on industry in our forum.