07.07.2022

Manufacturing: State of the Industry, the Potential for Growth suggests that manufacturers have ambitions to grow their business and increase employment over the next five years.

When we asked manufacturers to pick the top three initiatives to help them grow their business in the next five years, companies put incentives for investment top of the list, with investment in apprenticeships second and stronger local industrial strategies coming in third place. 22% of companies surveyed told us that greater power for local leaders to make good local decisions for business was key.

To kick start growth ambitions across Britain’s manufacturing sector and give companies the confidence to make bigger and bolder decisions, the Government should:

• Make the Annual Investment Allowance increase permanent
• Expand the R&D tax relief scheme to include capital expenditure
• Reform the Apprenticeship Levy to make it work better for business
• Create a business rates scheme that helps, not hinders business investment decision
• Deliver simple bespoke export support to businesses including improving access to local market knowledge in new export markets

“Government has already identified manufacturing as a growth sector and has done much to support it, firstly through the incredibly challenging environment of the pandemic and with a series of measures to help the sector bounce back as trade started to normalise. 

“However, to further tap into the growth, agility and resilience Britain’s manufacturers have shown over the last two years, imaginative solutions are needed to make sure the full potential is reached. It is not an overly ambitious target to say that manufacturing can grow to deliver a 15% share of UK GDP, but Government does need to help companies be confident enough to make big investment decisions by helping with some key incentives such as making the Annual Investment Allowance increase permanent and expanding the R&D tax relief scheme to include capital expenditure.” Stephen Phipson CBE, Chief Executive Make UK