'Things are changing so fast': the benefits and dangers of robots in the UK workplace

Politicians, trade unionists and experts have set out to learn more about the new industrial landscape

"We are under the threat of closure all the time," says Andrew Peters without a hint of fear in his voice.

As though repeating himself for the hundredth time, the managing director of Siemens' Congleton factory in Cheshire explains his workers are battling for survival. Competition in this historic market town at the foothills of the Pennines, where lush green hills rise to the craggy moorlands of the Peak District, is increasingly global.