Hammond urged to keep on track with his Budget
MANUFACTURERS IN Yorkshire are calling on the Chancellor to maintain focus on driving up productivity and pressing ahead with infrastructure investment in the forthcoming Budget to ensure post-Brexit business success.
EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, believes the direction set by Philip Hammond in the Autumn Statement should continue to provide the policy framework for what will be the first of two Budgets this year.
The organisation also said the Budget is an opportunity to demonstrate that the policy priorities set out in the Government’s industrial strategy Green Paper are being taken forward by all parts of government.
Andy Tuscher, region director for EEF in Yorkshire, said: “The economic indicators for the UK so far this year should offer the Chancellor further confidence about the resilience of the UK economy, but we remain some way off from the end of possible Brexit uncertainty.
“This Budget must drive ahead with the productivity-focused commitments that we saw in both the Autumn Statement and the Government’s recent industrial strategy Green Paper.”
He added that innovation, better skills and better infrastructure were not optional if the UK was to thrive after leaving the European Union.
EEF said the Government must enable more research and innovation, skills development and higher levels of investment as these would be critical in laying the foundations for future growth and productivity across British manufacturing.
Mr Tuscher said: “Action that enables more innovation, more investment and supports better skills and infrastructure in the economy are not optional if the UK is to be ready to make the most of post-Brexit opportunities.”
Funding for new Institutes of Technology should be competitive and targeted towards providers which demonstrate employer engagement and higher-level technical provision, the EEF said as it outlined its recommendations for the upcoming Budget.
The outcome of the review of the tax treatment of R&D should result in an uplift in the rate of the R&D tax credit for large companies and a formal consultation on broadening the definition of qualifying R&D for SMEs, the EEF recommended.
EEF also joined a chorus of voices calling on the Government to reform business rates.
Last weekend Andy Higginson, chairman of Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons, said he believed business rates were “a medieval tax that have past its sell by date” in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
The Government’s first rates overhaul in seven years comes into effect in April.
EEF said there was almost a unanimous view that the tax is far from perfect, but after successive rounds of consultation there needed to be an unequivocal decision on the long-term future of non-domestic property taxation.
The manufacturers’ organisation said plant and machinery should be removed from the calculation of business rates bills.
Just as important is ending the controversy over business rates Andy Tuscher, region director for EEF in Yorkshire
Mr Tuscher said: “Just as important is ending the controversy over business rates. This is a significant tax on businesses, which has been subject to much consultation in recent years.
“This Budget must ensure that the system meets fiscal and economic goals that are consistent with increasing productivity and doesn’t become an annual policy distraction.”
Brexit has been at the forefront of many manufacturers concerns.
Last month Terry Scuoler, CEO of EEF, called on Prime Minister Theresa May to work “tirelessly to deliver a comprehensive new trade and customs agreement with the EU”.
The organisation’s Executive Survey found that UK manufacturers expect 2017 to be another year of risks.