More infrastructure spending and public investment in R&D dominate the desires of UK manufacturers in the Budget build up.
Douglas Dawson, Chief Operating Officer, Caparo:
“Putting infrastructure spending back on the agenda is key not only for our steel businesses but the whole downstream supply chain economy as well.”
Laura Bawden, Finance Director, TMAT:
We need funds to be made available for investment in capital projects such as infrastructure, housing and local community projects.
“There needs to be a long term investment in order to sustain growth, but local investment is needed now, to get people into work and get the economy moving. We have seen no growth in the UK construction sector of our business for the past two years. We also want to see more incentives for companies to get more young people into work with better access to on the job training.
Jonathan Duck, CEO, Amtico International
“Our export industry is held back by import tariffs. We pay 5-6% on importing raw materials and exporting flooring to or from the US, and 60% when exporting to Brazil.
“The US government is pushing to drop EU tariffs with something called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It would be nice to see the UK government do something similar, and fro example move from rhetoric on exporting to Brazil to the action of actually getting high tariffs reduced.”
Mark Elbourne, CEO, GE UK
“The lack of movement on infrastructure projects, both large and small, is holding some areas of industry back. A commitment to these in the budget would be an important step towards getting the UK back to growth.”
Juergen Maier, MD of Siemens Industry UK:
“We need clear and robust policies that stimulate growth, which should include boosting infrastructure spending further still.
“Above all we need confidence that support for manufacturing and engineering sectors is part of a long term strategy. A clear signal in that regard would be to invest more in science and innovation. R&D spending is only 1% of public spending, and it delivers so much for industry. More investment in this area would do a lot to aid rebalancing”
Robin Phillips, Finance Director Siemens UK:
“There is strong progress in the exporting of goods to the BRIC countries, but weak domestic and European demand means that attaining growth is proving hard.
“We are seeing some good signs of sensible investment taking place but we would like further incentives and encouragement for UK manufacturers to invest in productivity enhancing solutions.
“Perhaps capital allowances that were extended for energy efficiency technologies could be extended for investments into automation solutions which could help bolster UK productivity”
