Based on a survey of 198 companies during October Make UK is 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 survey showed a third of manufacturers see lockdowns as the biggest concern in next 12 months. A similar proportion expect return to normal trading to take longer than a year.
Make UK calls fro an Industry Action Group to feed weekly economic data into COBRA, and argues that a National Skills Task Force is essential to build on the Job Retention Scheme.
Additionally it calls on Government to improve skills and create jobs by
- Introducing an amnesty and National Insurance Contributions and other employment taxes
- Establishing 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 Make UK says 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
- Immediately roll out 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.