Building a competitive business environment for manufacturers

UK manufacturers have been calling for a long-term vision for the industry for decades, with 99% of manufacturers saying it is essential to seriously competing on the global stage.

As the sector faces productivity challenges, skills shortages, global competition, and environmental pressures, a long-term vision for manufacturing, supported by an effective industrial strategy is what’s required.

In partnership with , our survey of over 150 UK manufacturers, has gathered feedback on what should be prioritised within an industrial strategy that will help to ensure a competitive business environment for the sector in future. Our research has focussed on:

changes needed to our current tax and regulatory environment;
local and national infrastructure investment priorities; and
governments plans to utilise place-based incentives (such as freeports and investment zones) to generate economic growth.

The manufacturing industry is embarking upon a period of seismic change and a plan is needed.

Tax and regulation
Infrastructure
Place based incentives

Tax and regulation

Tax and regulatory systems have a crucial role to play in encouraging economic growth. In this white paper we explore how favourable manufacturers believe the UK regimes to be, how they compare with those of other countries, the reforms the industry would like to see and the role these changes could play in a long term industrial strategy.

Infrastructure

An essential element of a successful industrial strategy involves prioritising infrastructure investment. This report explores manufacturers' perspectives on the state of the UK's existing infrastructure and where the industry would like to investment prioritised in future.

Place based incentives

Special economic zones, currently known as freeports or investment zones in the UK, have long been used as a tool to generate economic growth within specific geographic regions across the globe. With UK government now planning to use freeports and investment zones as part of their levelling up agenda, we asked manufacturers a series of questions to establish whether these types of policies have a role to play in a long term industrial strategy.