Extracts from Lords debate on Covid-19: Economy - June 4
Friday, 5 June 2020 07:57
Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted (LD):...More economic support for
business will be necessary, but it must work in a distributed and
reinforcing way. Last week, the FT reported
that Rolls-Royce threatened to chop any supplier that
cannot give it a 15% discount. The same article points out that big
manufacturers demanding cuts from suppliers are simultaneously
using their need to support the supply chain as one of their
pleadings to Ministers. I hope that the Minister has...Request free trial
(LD):...More economic support for business will be necessary, but
it must work in a distributed and reinforcing way. Last week,
the FT reported that Rolls-Royce threatened to chop any
supplier that cannot give it a 15% discount. The same article
points out that big manufacturers demanding cuts from suppliers are
simultaneously using their need to support the supply chain as one
of their pleadings to Ministers. I hope that the Minister has
spotted this hypocrisy, and that BEIS will make it clear that help
is for sharing and that squeezing the pips out of supply chains,
unreasonable discount demands and paying late will count against
them...
(LD):...We have heard that
there will be millions of jobs on the line. Today, Make UK, which
represents 20,000 businesses, has told a Select Committee in the
Commons that one in four manufacturing firms plan to cut jobs. For
example in aerospace, Rolls-Royce announced 3,000
UK redundancies this week, with, of course, a knock-on effect to
the supply chain. Elsewhere, today’s IHS Markit survey says that
some 64% of building firms reported a drop in construction activity
during May. Car showrooms have recently reopened but, not
surprisingly, UK car production is down by about 99%...
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