09.11.2020

Manufacturers offer to help build national testing capacity

Key measures:

• 35% of manufacturers say lockdowns are biggest concern in next 12 months

• Third of companies expect normal trading to take longer than a year

• Call for Industry Action Group to feed weekly economic data into COBRA

• National Skills Task Force essential to build on Job Retention Scheme

• Measures to boost investment, cashflow and debt management

Britain’s manufacturers are calling on the Government to bring forward a clear, long-term economic action plan which provides business and industry with a consistent strategy to help them steer a path through the long haul of the crisis.

The call was made by Make UK publishing its own 3 point action plan which contains proposals for the immediate lockdown period, an exit strategy and long term. While the announcement last week from the Chancellor to extend the furlough scheme was welcome Make UK believes these proposals will enable companies see a broader policy horizon and help place the UK on an equal footing with international competitors.

Make UK has also offered to lead the manufacturing sector working with Government as it did on the Ventilator Challenge, in building robust National capacity for mass regular testing of the UK population. This would effectively identify those areas which need additional measures to deal with Covid 19 outbreaks and avoid future waves of highly damaging National lockdowns.

Publishing its plan ‘Prepare, Implement, Lead’ Make UK backed its view that the crisis has many months to run into next year with data from a survey of almost two hundred companies showing over a third (36.8%) believe it will take longer than twelve months to return to normal trading whilst over a quarter (26.8%) believe it will take between six and twelve months. 

As part of its action plan Make UK has called for the immediate establishment of an Industry Action Group which would feed weekly impact and intelligence data each week into COBRA on what level of support is needed to protect businesses, employees and communities. At the same time, Government must also work with key trading partners to ensure borders remain open for goods and services and key freight routes protected. 

This must be followed by a clear exit strategy with collective agreement between industry, scientists and Government on when lockdown ends, including a fully functioning test trace and isolate system that removes the time delays that employers and their employees currently face.

Looking forward, as well as securing a good deal with the EU which avoids the disastrous prospect for industry of leaving without one, Government must set out a ‘ready to go’ strategy to fire up demand and help repair the economic damage.

To improve skills and create jobs Government should:

• Introduce an amnesty and National Insurance Contributions and other employment taxes
• Establish a National Skills Taskforce to help redeploy highly skilled engineers and technical workers who have found themselves unemployed
• Reform the Apprenticeship Levy to help arrest the sharp decline in new starts

To boost investment & innovation Government should:

• Double the R&D tax credit and make it more accessible to SMEs
• Extend the temporary increases in investment allowances due to finish at the end of the year
• Immediate roll out of 5G across all regions

To mitigate cash flow challenges and sustainable debt management Government should:

• Immediately waive business rates for the manufacturing sector and reduce the costs of business rates in the long run
• Introduce financial instruments that allow manufacturing businesses to manage their debt sustainably.

The survey of 198 companies was carried out between 12 and 19 October.

View the full report here