23.03.2022
The Spring Statement comes at a critical time for manufacturing in the UK – in a juxtaposition between soaring domestic and international demand for British manufactured goods and extreme supply-side limitations that are seeing manufacturers struggle to maintain production capacity. Sustained, stable growth remains the shared goal of industry and Government, and following two years of economic suppression, it’s now, in this so-called recovery period, that UK manufacturers are eager to make the most of their swelling order books to recoup as much of the lost value as possible.
However, at the Spring Statement we are calling on the Chancellor to not shy away from the realities facing businesses today. Businesses face a multitude of increasing costs pressures from the soaring cost of raw materials, snowballing wage inflation, to spiralling energy costs - all of which could prove to be existential threats to the industry.
We are therefore urging the Chancellor to use this Spring Statement to address these immediate threats head on and give us the best chance of mitigating the catastrophic impacts manufacturers face. We believe that there are a few key areas where action now can help achieve this:
- Limiting the tax burden
- Reducing soaring business costs:
- Encourage capital investment
- Tackle labour and skills shortages
- Cut red tape and promote trade
More details on each of these calls are in the full submission.