A debate has been scheduled in Westminster Hall at 3:00pm on 12 February on onshoring in the fashion and textiles industry. The subject for the debate has been chosen by the Backbench Business Committee and the debate will be opened by Catherine West MP.
Onshoring, sometimes referred to as reshoring, describes the relocation of production or stages of a supply chain back to the UK from overseas. Related terms include nearshoring, which refers to moving production to geographically closer countries, and friend shoring, which involves sourcing from partners considered politically aligned or lower risk.
These concepts feature in wider discussions of trade and industrial strategy, particularly in the context of supply chain disruptions and geopolitical developments in the 2020s. However, UK Government 2025 trade and industrial strategy documents do not contain explicit policies to promote the onshoring of manufacturing.
The Industrial Strategy focuses on investment, growth and productivity, particularly in eight high growth sectors rather than repatriating industries.
At the same time, the government acknowledges its procurement power to support local employment and strengthen domestic supply chains, as set out in the 2025 consultation on Public procurement: Growing British industry, jobs and skills.
Industry bodies such as the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT), the British Fashion Council (BFC) and their Circular Fashion Innovation Network (CFIN) support onshoring as a way to increase supply chain resilience, improve the competitiveness of the UK fashion and textile sector, and enhance the sector’s ethical and social compliance.
Two 2025 reports, led by CFIN and UKFT, Responsible UK Fashion and Textile Supply Chains and Reshoring for real, state that a blend of far‑shoring, near shoring and onshoring may offer the sector long term economic, social and environmental benefits. Reshoring for real frames reshoring domestic production as part of “a new blended global supply chain matrix” (PDF, page 19).
The reports identify several potential benefits of onshoring for the fashion and textile sector. These include shorter lead times and greater flexibility of domestic production. They say that onshoring enables faster responses to evolving consumer trends and contributes to more sustainable production. It can create opportunities to reduce waste, overproduction, and the carbon footprint.
The reports also highlight onshoring as an opportunity to make manufacturing processes more transparent, to support stronger oversight of working conditions, and to contribute to ethical and sustainable production.
Reshoring for real calls policymakers to support sustainable manufacturing and innovation in supply chains “to make the UK a global leader in sustainable fashion and facilitate textile recycling infrastructure at scale” (page 2).
In the past, concerns have been raised about working conditions in some UK garment factories, including in Leicester, following a reshoring trend to smaller UK factories. The Commons Environmental Audit Committee scrutinised this in the report Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability, published in 2019.
Transform Trade, a just trade charity, has conducted an international study of textile supply chains, Wearing thin: Retailer impact on Indian garment manufacturers. Its subsequent campaign recommends that governments of countries that import clothing take steps to stop harmful trading practices of clothing brands and retailers, which worsen working conditions and workers’ rights in the manufacturing countries. It calls for the introduction of a UK Garment Trading Adjudicator to regulate the sector and enforce a code of practice.
The Commons Library briefing on Trade, supply chains and workers’ rights outlines wider civil society concerns about human rights and environmental harm in global supply chains, and summarises the UK’s current legislative and policy framework. It considers calls for reform, including proposals for mandatory corporate due diligence.
The UK Government’s June 2025 Trade Strategy announced a review of responsible business conduct, focusing on global supply chains. The review will consider human rights, labour abuses, modern slavery and environmental harms.
The tables below show estimates of the number of jobs in the textile manufacturing industry and the apparel manufacturing industry across the regions and countries of Great Britain.
They show that the North West has the highest number of jobs in textile manufacturing, while the East Midlands has the highest number of jobs in apparel manufacturing.
Source: ONS, Business Register and Employment Survey via Nomis
Note: This is data using SIC codes 13: Manufacture of textiles and 14: Manufacture of wearing apparel. This employee data was published by the Office for National Statistics and is based on estimates from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), a national survey of employers. As this is survey-based, the figures should be treated as estimates. The data counts jobs rather than individuals. A single person may hold more than one job, so the figures do not equate to a headcount.
Economic output can be measured using gross value added, or GVA. GVA measures the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector, minus the cost of what was needed to produce them. It shows how much value an industry or area adds to the economy.
The tables below show the GVA of the textile manufacturing industry and the apparel manufacturing industry across the regions and countries of the UK.
They show that the North West had the highest GVA in textile manufacturing in 2023, while the North East had the highest GVA in apparel manufacturing.
Source: ONS, GDP output approach – low-level aggregates, Tab 1; ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry: all ITL regions, Tab 1c.
Note: This is data using SIC codes 13: Manufacture of textiles and 14: Manufacture of wearing apparel.
A 2023 report by UKFT and Oxford Economics estimated that the industry directly generated £26 billion in GVA in 2021. According to the report, this activity was associated with 710,000 jobs and £13 billion in tax receipts for the Exchequer.
The report also estimated that the removal of barriers to public sector procurement of textiles could increase GDP by £3.1 billion, support an additional 64,000 jobs and generate a further £1.2 billion in tax revenues for the Exchequer. (page 77)
UKFT, Reshoring for Real: The future of domestic UK apparel manufacturing report, 7 May 2025
Transforming Trade, Wearing thin: Retailer impact on Indian garment manufacturers, May 2025
UKFT, Responsible UK Fashion and Textile Supply Chains, 19 March 2025
UKFT, UKFT’s key asks of the new government, 8 July 2024
UKFT and Oxford Economics, The Fashion & Textile Industry’s Footprint in the UK, October 2023
Postlethwaite S., “Why the UK Fashion Industry Should Be Written in to the New Industrial Strategy”, Fashion Practice, 2026, pp. 1–22
House of Commons Library, Trade, supply chains and workers’ rights, 12 November 2025
PQ 80430 [on Clothing: Supply Chains], 20 October 2025
PQ 80512 [on Developing Countries: Clothing], 20 October 2025
PQ 73517 [on Clothing: Manufacturing Industries], 2 September 2025
Department for Business & Trade, The UK’s Trade Strategy, 25 July 2025
Environmental Audit Committee, Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability, Sixteenth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 1952, 19 February 2019
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