Manufacturing businesses across Telford have reacted to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.
Award-winning commercial cheese and dairy specialist Bridge Cheese said manufacturing confidence was likely to remain low for some time in the wake of yesterday’s announcements.
Managing director Michael Harte said the increase in National Insurance payments for employers coupled with pessimism about the state of the UK economy would undoubtedly have an impact across the sector.
But he welcomed the government’s commitment to driving environmental sustainability, which mirrored his own company’s determination to cut emissions.
Michael, whose Telford-based company has enjoyed rapid growth in the six years since it was launched, said:
“I have no doubt that the Chancellor has inherited a hugely difficult situation and had a very limited set of cards to play.
“The focus on innovation and commitment to making Britain a clean energy superpower, is certainly a move in the right direction. Time is running out to save this planet for our children and we simply cannot sit back and ignore the science.
“For example, we’ve been working with local partners to significantly reduce the amount of PPE we send to landfill and also rationalising our transport miles to make sure we reduce our carbon footprint as much as we can.
“We also agree with the Chancellor that the best way for the UK economy to improve – and help fund our public services – is through promoting growth.
“But the Chancellor’s measures look likely to add more cost to business rather than reduce it and make investing in that growth much more difficult. We had already seen business confidence fall at the fastest pace for nearly five years last month, and I’m not sure yesterday’s announcement will turn that around.”
Bridge Cheese has grown from a new start up to a company with a £30million turnover and 80 employees within the space of six years.
Graham Corfield, chief executive and founder of Telford-based aviation specialist Aviramp, also gave the Budget a mixed reaction.
He welcomed talk of new investment in green initiatives and the publication of a roadmap setting out the tax policies businesses can expect from Labour over the current term of government.
But he said that making it more expensive for businesses to employ people by putting up National Insurance payments for employers was the wrong policy for a Government which claimed to be promoting growth.
“The National Insurance hike for employers not only breaks the spirit of the promise made in the Labour Party’s election manifesto, it undermines the government’s claim to be driving growth.
“Earlier this month we had once-in-a-generation employment law changes which make it harder and more expensive to recruit new people, now we are saddled with extra cost for employing staff. It’s hard to see how both are compatible with rewarding success and promoting growth.
“I do like the idea that the government has laid out its broad tax plans for the next five years, but as this Budget has shown, there is a world of difference between the promises politicians make and the actions they take.
“Having said that, I really do welcome the focus on promoting green initiatives. We’ve been doing that at Aviramp for years with our solar powered ramps and remain wholeheartedly committed to driving down emissions and creating a sustainable future.”
Telford-based Aviramp – a current holder of the Queen’s Award for International Trade which has seen its orders rise 30 per cent over the last year – is the global leader in manufacturing step-free, non-slip boarding ramps.
Meanwhile, Wayne Carter, managing director of leading steel fabrication firm Fabweld Steel Products in Telford, said the Budget needed to re-assure manufacturers that they would be supported to grow.
He said: “The manufacturing sector is in desperate need of a boost, so the government’s decision to focus on this area through a new industrial strategy can only be good news.
“As an employer which invests heavily in its workforce, I’m pleased to see the government targeting investment in skills and training, but we need to examine what the detail looks like on changes to national insurance and tax implications for employers.
“Manufacturing needs support to help us bring in the technological advancements which will help us to compete, especially when it comes to the green technologies which are already being pushed forward in China and Europe.
“I am very interested to see how these investments will pan out in terms of improving the efficiency and sustainability of manufacturing businesses in the UK.”
