UK trade body calls for 'tangible support on the factory floor'
The Confederation of British Metalforming also recommends regulation that recognises the difference between a multinational company and an SME.
President Stephen Morley says the manufacturing industry ‘needs an Industrial Strategy that delivers competitive energy prices, a skills system that develops the engineers and technicians of the future, and planning rules that allow companies to invest without getting trapped in years of bureaucracy’.
He also says the government should consider the German Mittelstand model, which includes companies with up to 500 employees as a small to medium enterprise (SME).
‘Management teams can deal with difficult decisions,’ explained Morley. ‘What they struggle with is uncertainty. When a manufacturer is considering investing in a new machine, expanding a factory or taking on additional employees, they need to know what the economic and regulatory landscape is going to look like tomorrow and in the future, not just today.’
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