Manchester Fashion Institute Robotics Living Lab

That this House congratulates Manchester Metropolitan University on the opening of the Robotics Living Lab (RoLL) funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council; notes that this investment of £3.8m at the Manchester Fashion Institute will enable fashion designers and manufacturers to create and produce more sustainably, modernising fashion manufacturing and help to address the industry’s skills shortage; agrees with Professor Susan Postlethwaite that the fashion industry makes a huge contribution to the UK economy, however most of that comes from imported garments and that by using innovative and sustainable technologies RoLL will help to reshape the agenda for the creative industry; believes that RoLL will play a vital role in attracting the workforce back to the UK, upskilling human workers and offering world-class fashion design products that are locally manufactured; and calls on the Government to recognise the vital role that fashion can play in the UK’s manufacturing future and ensure that it is recognised in the Invest 3035 Industrial Strategy.