Ian Jack’s excellent piece (Fire returns to the Potteries’ heart, 16 October) rightly highlights the positive prospects for the UK ceramics industry. As labour costs and energy prices rise in east Asia, jobs and investment are returning to the Potteries. And while it behoves today’s pottery firms to invest in the environmental technologies and design skills crucial to a competitive future, it would also be helpful if Whitehall civil servants appreciated ceramics as a great British industry worthy of encouragement.

After years of denying its global brand value as “The Potteries”, and knocking down the bottle kilns, the city is now building on its heritage to craft a new future of manufacturing, engineering and craftsmanship. In a globalised market, the Potteries will never employ the same numbers but, as new Chinese and Indian investors realise, “Made in Staffordshire” remains an asset of worldwide repute.

Tristram Hunt MP

Lab, Stoke-on-Trent Central

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