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Lord Howie of Troon: My Lords, there were some good English engineers. There were some Indian ones too, although not too many. That brings me to the subject I really wanted to mention; namely, the design of bridges. I think that is within the ambit of the Question. A year or so ago the report of the Royal Fine Art Commission mentioned the appearance of bridges and how they could be improved if architects were made the prime movers and the lead designers of bridges. I dissent from that a little. The Forth Bridge is not too bad and an architect did not go near it. The best looking bridge in London is Waterloo Bridge. The architect's part in that has been dispensed with. His elaborate handrail was discarded in favour of the temporary handrail which was put in as an economy measure during the war. The ceremonial arches which he wished, for some architectural reason, to put at either end were also dropped. The bridge is one of the best constructions in the country. I have spoken often in this House in defence of architects. Everyone who knows me, including the young Minister who sits on the Front Bench beaming at me--we have had many exchanges on this point--will realise that. Architects tend to make a statement; and a statement is not necessarily what is wanted.
I wish to conclude merely by asking the Minister a question about which I have given quasi-notice. I do not wish him to reply tonight. I merely ask him to ponder upon it. We recognise the importance of the Design Council in design work; we have also recognised the importance of engineering in design. Under the Government's policies, how is it that the Design Council receives an annual subvention or subsidy from the Government whereas the Engineering Council has none? It does similar work although not the same. There should be an answer somewhere. I have asked a similar question several times over the years. I ask the question again. I do not expect an answer.
8 p.m.
Lord Haskel: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Palumbo, on so enthusiastically introducing the Motion, especially just after London Fashion Week in which we have seen again what a strong tradition we have in Britain for good design. And each year at this time the question is asked: why do we not celebrate this talent, and why does it have to go abroad?
The noble Lord, Lord Lawrence, spoke of the clothing industry. He is right. The retailing of clothing in Britain is largely in the hands of half a dozen chains led by Marks & Spencer, which naturally promotes its own brands. Years ago these retailers would copy designer clothing. Today, quite rightly, they employ their own designers as well as working with known independent designers whose labels they incorporate with their own. Most importantly, they tell designers what customers want to buy, but not what to design. They also tell them to which price points they have to design.
In most other countries the sale of clothing is much more fragmented, and in those markets, such as Japan, highly promoted designer labels help the retailer to sell stock. The noble Lord, Lord Lawrence, mentioned designer labels such as Armani, Yves St. Laurent and Calvin Klein. They have a large and sophisticated marketing machine to support the retailer. Others, like Benetton, set retailers up in business and give them a franchise to sell the company's products.
Designers have to find a niche in all this. The European textile manufacturing industry today largely consists of small and medium-sized, privately owned businesses that exist on quick response and flexibility through lean manufacturing and design flair. They are close to their customers, and indeed have to be logged on to their customers' computer networks. In today's business world, designing skills are, therefore, not enough. Business skills are also important. My noble friend Lord Currie touched on that.
The answer is to provide designers with some understanding of business skills. What do designers and inventors need to make a success of their talents? They need to understand their industry, commercially and technically; how to protect their intellectual property; where to go for funding; they need personal development to give them confidence to project the excitement and advantages of their designs, and to be able to sell their designs and their knowledge.
I know of only one institution offering a course covering all of those aspects. I know about the course because it is near where I live--Richmond-upon- Thames College. It certainly fills a need. This course does not teach people to design or invent. It teaches them what to do with their designs and inventions. Certainly much design and invention work is done in large laboratories and studios; but the argument for supporting those individuals is the same as the argument for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, on which I know the Minister is very keen.
In preparing for the debate, I spoke to the organiser of the course and discovered that the real motivation for it is environmental sustainability. If we are to stick to Agenda 21 we shall have to reinvent and redesign many things. It is already happening in the way that we design and build our new buildings. The noble Lord, Lord Howie, touched upon that. Our medicine has to be redesigned. The way we handle and manage energy will need redesigning. Many products and processes will have to be redesigned with environmental sustainability in mind.
Perhaps this is the area where design will become most important. These products and processes have to be redesigned and reinvented remembering the needs of modern lean manufacturing and environmental sustainability.
Here I should like also to salute the work of the Design Council in making business and industry aware of precisely these needs. Their Design in Business Week, their Design Councillors in Business Links, and their benchmarking and networking have all helped to make business and the public aware of the importance not only of the way things look but also of how they are
put together and how they perform. My noble friend Lord Currie and the noble Lord, Lord Palumbo, told us that that attitude is the way in which successful businesses now think. They take the broader view of design.If we have to redesign many of the things we use in everyday life, we need to keep our designers in this country. We should be honouring them, supporting them with training courses, and valuing them. That will help them to get their designs and inventions to the market on their own merits. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to tell us on how the Government plan to do that. I also look forward to the Minister being able to answer the examination question put by my noble friend Lord Desai.
8.7 p.m.
Lord Fraser of Carmyllie: My Lords, like all who contributed to this short debate, I warmly welcome it. The Government have long recognised that the better and wider use of design is fundamental to improving Britain's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Indeed, if I may say so, last Thursday evening I was at an exhibition in Bahrain of British design excellence. If I may say to the noble Lord, Lord Palumbo, I should like to express my congratulations to the Design Museum upon the excellence of its organisation of that exhibition; and to congratulate those who participated, showing the quality of British design to a wide audience. And, stumbling on to an aircraft at 2.30 in the morning, I particularly welcomed the design of the new British Airways horizontal bed highlighted in the briefing for the debate given to us all by the Design Council.
Definitions of what design is are legion and I shall not attempt to add a new definition. All I will say is that design is not simply a prettying up process that can happen at the end of the development of a product.
Properly understood and used, design should be embedded in all processes that lead to the creation of goods and--I am glad that it was emphasised in the debate--of services. This fact is well understood by many world-class British companies, whether British Airways that I mentioned, or Dyson. Design permeates their culture and underpins their international success.
And yet we puzzle. Why is it that Britain produces so many world-class designers of all disciplines--the noble Lord, Lord Lawrence, was right to make that point--who operate successfully for clients all around the world and yet much of British industry seems to ignore the design talent on its own doorstep? Why is it that so many of the things we buy from abroad, be it French cars and toasters, German inhalers, or Finnish mobile phones, are actually the work of British designers?
Part of the answer is, I believe, that design is all too often seen by too many British companies as an "add-on", a costly luxury that can be dispensed with when times are hard. So the challenge is to persuade the owners and managers of our companies that design is not a luxury but an essential.
Since its inception, the Design Council has done, and continues to do, much to raise awareness of design in both industry and commerce. As the noble Lord, Lord Currie, said, raising that awareness undoubtedly plays a crucial part. The council has done much to raise awareness, not only in industry and commerce, but among the general public as well. Over the years it has evolved to meet the changing needs of our nation, including the direct delivery of sound advice to companies through a regional network in England and operations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Design is important. But it is not a magic wand to solve all our problems. I entirely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Haskel. Our industries need also to improve many other aspects of their performance if they and the United Kingdom are to prosper in the increasingly competitive and complex global market-place.
To encourage and help our companies to become world class is a central aim of government policy. Bringing encouragement and support to British industry in a variety of areas--quality, innovation, technology transfer, the exploitation of multi-media, financial planning, and management best practice--is as important as encouraging and supporting the effective use of design.
Until recently, the Design Council itself delivered advice and help on design issues to industry. In a sense, this tended to isolate design as a business issue. After all, why go to the Design Council for help unless you think you have a design problem?
The Government's decision to set up Business Links provided the opportunity to do two things for design--first, and for the first time, to integrate design into the delivery of a wide range of business improvement services and secondly to bring design much closer to small and medium-sized companies than the Design Council had managed to do.
All Business Links in England are required to provide design counselling services. The Government are providing funds to enable them to employ design counsellors. Today, 50 Business Link partnerships are providing design services. We expect the network to be completed in the next few months. At the same time, the Design Council has been revamped to become the high profile and proactive advocate for design. Its mission has been restated thus:
- "to inspire the best use of design by the UK, in the world context, to improve prosperity and well being".
The "new" Design Council is a lean organisation which, since its relaunch in November 1994, has put in place a new team of people, new strategies and new programmes of research and development. The council operates at the national level.
The Design Council supports the work of the Business Link design counsellors and reports to the President of the Board of Trade on how effectively design services are being delivered by Business Links. The latest report, received at the turn of the year, reported that the design counselling services are working well and that their clients reported a high level of satisfaction.
The noble Lord, Lord Desai, asked about the image of Britain overseas and how it needed to be improved. There have been some interesting studies of Britain as a brand. They inform the work of promoting Britain overseas by the DTI, the British Council and the Foreign Office. It is important to build on our traditional strengths, which bring us considerable business and exports, inward investment and tourism. However, presenting Britain as a progressive and successful industrial nation with which it is good to do business is equally important. That thought is very much at the forefront when overseas promotions such as those under the Commercial Excellence programme are being designed.
The noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, asked why government does not use design better. Government procurement does indeed take account of design. There are a number of shining examples where design has been deployed to ensure efficiency. The brief of the Design Council includes the very interesting example of forms prepared for the Royal Mail. An excellent example of securing efficiency and value for money is that of the Ministry of Defence Abbeywood facilities. But I recognise, as does the noble Lord, that there is always room for improvement. The Design Council works with all departments across government including--dare I say it?--the Treasury.
The noble Lords, Lord Lawrence and Lord Freyberg, asked about design education in the United Kingdom. The evidence is that Britain's reputation and the reputation of individual colleges for design education remain particularly high. The courses attract high numbers of students from overseas--as many as 40 per cent. in some cases. However, again, there should be no complacency about the need to maintain and improve high standards. I look to the Design Council, the national authority for design, to alert government if there are perceived to be any problems in this area.
In the 21st century, Britain will have to make its way in the world by exploiting to the fullest all its resources of mind, ingenuity and creativity. The world has never owed anyone a living and it certainly does not do so now. And, while the world is opening up increasingly to free trade, new and hungry players are coming to the market-place. Most, and probably all, understand how important design is and send students to Britain to be educated and trained as designers or as managers of the design process.
Britain produces world class designers. That is because we are an inventive people. But it is also because we have a world class design education system. Design is included with technology in the national curriculum. Our design colleges and institutions attract students from around the world and they return to their home countries to design goods and services that we here may end up buying.
The second part of the Question related to what steps we are taking to discourage design talent from seeking employment abroad. It is very seldom that in this House we find two economists agreeing with each other. On
this occasion they not only agreed with each other but had an engineer in support--an even more unusual combination. I add my agreement as well.In the past, as will be the case in the future, talented young people will go where their talent is appreciated and rewarded. In the long run I do not consider that as necessarily being to our disbenefit. Indeed, as the economy becomes more globalised we shall probably benefit from their experience of other cultures and other design traditions when they return home, as they very frequently do. Their understanding of other cultures and traditions is important to British companies looking to design products for the international market-place.
As a number of noble Lords emphasised, what we are really trying to determine is not whether they should come and go but whether something more should be done to improve awareness of the calibre of those young designers in the United Kingdom. I have no doubt that there is more to be done to create an understanding of their worth. We certainly wish to do all that we can to encourage major companies and small and medium-sized firms to appreciate design for what it is--an essential tool for business excellence and success. That is what we are trying to do, as I have sought to explain, through the work of the Design Council and with the new and improved design services at Business Links. As many noble Lords said, design is a British strength which British industry ignores at its peril. The Government remain firmly committed to encouraging and helping British companies to understand that and to exploit that talent.
I thought the quotation by the noble Lord, Lord Desai, an exceptionally apt one with which to conclude any debate. Like his excellent piece in the Sun newspaper recently, it was a quotation that might have been made by the Prime Minister himself. I believe that in answering that question I have scored 100 per cent.
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