How much is space worth to Britain?

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Phil Davies of SSTL admits that “We would have had much faster growth had there not been a recession,” but says the company hasn't resorted to lay-offs. Richard Peckham of Astrium says his company's staff has grown by several hundred in the last year.

The aims of the Space IGT - which can be downloaded here - are loftier still. If the British space industry grows its worth to £40 billion a year, it will hold 10 per cent of the worldwide space market and create 10,000 jobs.

However, Peckham says the future of the British space industry depends on the success of the incoming space agency. Current government attitude to space “lacks focus,” he said.

“The British Government as a whole hasn't really ever developed a coherent space policy that really looks across all the government's needs.”

The development of a national space policy and ensuring the British space agency is “sufficiently resourced and empowered” are items one and two in the IGT's report, but the exact timing and funding of the agency are deeply unclear. With the announcement only a month and a half old it's unsurprising that plans are nascent at best, but the probability of a new government in the coming months could prove complicated.

Cuts coming?

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Conservative science minister Adam Afriyie admitted that major cuts to government spending on science were “inevitable”, a worrying turn of phrase considering the IGT report calls for twice the UK's current expenditure on space projects.

However, neither Labour nor the Conservatives are promising more cash for science, according to Space UK's Richard Peckham. He says the IGT report "is not primarily about asking for more money."

“In both parties there is recognition that if you don’t generate wealth there can’t be any discussions about how you’re going to spend the money," he noted. "I think both parties recognise that we need a more balanced economy.”

Phil Davies of SSTL echoes the sentiment. “There's been a tendency in the last 10 or 15 years to think financial services is all we need to be doing in this country.” The rocky economy of the last two years underlines the importance of a vibrant industrial industry, he argues.

In 2007, the British space industry captured around six per cent of the world market – an impressive statistic for an industry whose government funding falls well short of that of other western European countries, according to the experts IT PRO spoke to.

But the IGT report claims that without a “positive decision to go for growth”, the industry will not only stagnate, its share of the global market could halve.

Richard Peckham says the development of a coherent space strategy is “really fundamental to the UK upping its game. If it doesn't happen, we're not going to fizzle out and die overnight, but we can't see the room for growth.”

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