To coincide with National Manufacturing Day, on Make UK published a short policy paper – Manufacturing: The state of industry, the potential for growth
The paper is passed on a snap survey conducted last week which around 130 manufacturers responded to.
Key findings included:
- Every manufacturer surveyed agreed that Government should introduce a National Manufacturing Plan
- 9 in 10 manufacturers think Government should introduce a national target to grow manufacturing’s share of GDP
- Three-quarters of firms had not heard of the Government’s Plan for Growth
- Over half of companies (52%) say they are planning to grow their business by over 20% in the next 5 years
- Around a quarter (24%) intend to expand their business by up to 20% and one in five (18%) have plans to grow up to 10%
- By growing their business over one in five (21%) said employment would increase by over 20%
- Nearly one in five (19%) said staff numbers would grow by up to 20% and a third (35%) said employment would increase by up to 10%
- Almost half (46%) said better incentives to invest would help them expand their business
- 1 in 3 manufacturers said investment in apprenticeships would help them grow their business in the next 5 years
- 22% said an increase in export support and 1 in 5 cited better incentives to invest in R&D
We are therefore calling on Government to ensure these ambitions turn into reality by:
- Making the Annual Investment Allowance increase permanent
- Expanding the R&D tax relief scheme to include capital expenditure
- Reforming the Apprenticeship Levy to make it work better for business
- Creating a business rates scheme that helps, not hinders business investment decision
- Delivering simple bespoke export support to business including improving access to local market knowledge in new export markets
