Be prepared! Industry urges government to deliver strategy for all Brexit scenarios

In a new Policy Digest, published today, the manufacturers’ organisation, EEF, has called on the government to deliver an industrial strategy that will fill in the gaps regardless of the final Brexit deal.

This call comes alongside a recent survey, published by EEF and performed by YouGov, demonstrating substantial public backing for the UK to be a top five manufacturing nation by output. A key outcome from the survey was that a majority of respondents (82%) stated that a strong manufacturing base is essential for the UK economy’s future growth.

In other data, taken from the EEF Business Environment survey 2016, it was found that only 8% of companies believe that the UK has supportive policies for manufacturers, whereas 65% believe that to be the case in Germany.

EEF’s Policy Digest, ‘Making the Industrial Strategy Work for UK Manufacturing’, describes how the final draft of the industrial strategy can match the ambition of manufacturers and the nation through greater clarity of support for industry as found in other countries.

“The UK is facing a potentially game-changing point as we leave the EU whilst the sector is also on the cusp of massive technological change and grappling with long-term investment decisions. These challenges will continue regardless of what shape the final Brexit deal takes. Industry will have to be nimble in navigating challenges and quickly grasping new opportunities in order to fulfil public ambition for Britain to be a dominant manufacturing nation,” commented Ms Lee Hopley, EEF Chief Economist.

“The development of an ambitious industrial strategy with cross government buy-in is critical for meeting industrial ambition and the sector wants to work with government to make this a success,” she added. “Policy makers must now focus on evolving the positive policy framework set out earlier in the year into clear strategy which gives manufacturers confidence about the competitiveness of the UK in the future.”