- Make UK says Chancellor must turn reindustrialisation
rhetoric into action in Autumn Budget
- Manufacturers call on Chancellor to ease employment, energy
and business cost pressures holding back growth
- Make UK says Autumn Budget is the first real test of the
Government's reindustrialisation agenda
The Government must put some flesh on the bones of the buzzwords
if its ambitions for reindustrialisation and growth in every
postcode are to succeed where levelling up and building back
better fell short, according to manufacturers.
Ahead of the Autumn Budget, Make UK has urged the Chancellor to
focus on reducing the cost pressures holding manufacturers back
from hiring, investing and growing, warning that ambitions for
reindustrialisation will fail unless businesses are first given
room to breathe.
The organisation also stressed that the Government's commitment
to reindustrialisation must build on the certainty provided by
the recently published Industrial Strategy.
Manufacturers need long-term stability and confidence to invest,
alongside practical measures that improve competitiveness today.
The organisation is calling on the Government to:
- Address the UK's uncompetitive industrial energy costs by
moving policy levies from electricity bills into general
taxation.
- Reduce the cost of employing people by reversing the cut to
the Employer National Insurance threshold and extending NIC
reliefs to all workers under 25.
- Keep National Living Wage increases sustainable by limiting
rises to 3.7% and delaying the extension of the National Living
Wage to 18-year-olds until the impact on youth employment can be
properly assessed.
- Take a more proportionate approach to the Employment Rights
Act, particularly around guaranteed hours and implementation
timescales, to avoid making it harder for manufacturers to
recruit.
- Introduce 100% transitional business rates relief for
manufacturers in 2026/27, giving firms breathing space from
recent increases in rates bills.
The proposals are backed by Make UK's latest survey of
manufacturers, which found that 47% believe cutting industrial
energy costs should be the Government's top manufacturing
priority, followed by 37% who want lower Employers' National
Insurance costs, 32% who want employment rules made simpler and
less costly for businesses and 31% who want business rates
reduced.
The research also highlights growing concern about employment
regulation. Just 11% of manufacturers believe the Employment
Rights Act should continue as planned, while 36% want the next
stages paused and reviewed, 22% want the most burdensome measures
reversed and a further 11% want implementation delayed to give
businesses more time to prepare.
While 56% of manufacturers say they feel positive about the
Government's ambition to reindustrialise the economy, they say
success will ultimately be judged on outcomes. Asked what would
show Government was delivering for manufacturing in a year's
time, 43% chose lower operating costs, 36% more competitive
energy prices, 35% more manufacturers increasing investment in
the UK and 29% more manufacturing jobs being created.
Stephen Phipson CBE, Chief Executive of Make UK,
said:
Governments are good at promising economic resets but delivering
them is much harder. If reindustrialisation and growth in every
postcode are to succeed where levelling up and building back
better didn't, it's time to put some flesh on the bones of the
buzzwords.
The Autumn Budget is the first real test of the Government's
reindustrialisation agenda. The Chancellor needs to show, through
action not words, what the Government's promises actually mean.
For UK manufacturers, that means making decisions right now to
ease the burdens they face. If the Government wants our members
to stay afloat, the first step is to take some of the weight off
their shoulders.
Manufacturers don't need flashy new schemes and announcements.
They need Government to remove the barriers that stop them from
hiring, investing and growing.
