Ahead of tomorrow’s Autumn Statement, trade policy experts at IOE&IT team have shared their thoughts with today’s IOE&IT Daily Update about on what they would like to hear from the chancellor.
You can read more about what the rumours and speculation about what’s going to be in the speech here.
Growth plan
IOE&IT director general Marco Forgione outlined his three key asks for government in a letter personally delivered to the Treasury during a visit to No 11 last month.
He began by making the case for a “clear, comprehensive, long-term strategy for growth” with separate plans for both an import and export strategy.
Secondly, he emphasised the need to support MSMEs to use e-commerce platforms to export, highlighting a report by the Social Market Foundation that found that there are 70,000 UK MSMEs that could be exporting but currently aren’t, costing the UK economy an estimated £9.3bn.
Finally, keeping the focus on MSMEs, Forgione advocated for small businesses to have greater access to the government’s apprenticeship programme. To do this, he suggested revising the current funding model for the programme.
Growth
Reflecting on IOE&IT’s membership base, the head of IOE&IT’s UK nations and regions team, Paul Brooks, echoed Forgione’s comments.
Brooks, who is also IOE&IT’s UK manufacturing lead, noted that business members and manufacturers, who make up 53% of the membership, “are continually looking for stability to support their investment and growth plans”.
“Therefore, beyond this week’s Autumn Statement it would be great to see a real commitment to a long-term industrial strategy.
“This needs to build upon a co-ordinated business growth plan around both imports and exports.”
Imports
Head of trade policy, Hemita Bhatti, also emphasised the importance of connecting the import and export strategies, saying “it’s important for the UK to take a holistic approach to trade policy, by linking a clear import strategy to a wider export strategy”. She added:
“At a time when there is growing global instability, this will be pivotal for sustained business growth.
“Through diversifying sources and identifying key industries which are heavily reliant on imports, we can create more targeted policies to encourage domestic production or identify alternative reliant sources to create resiliency.”
Skills
IOE&IT UK public affairs lead Grace Thompson raised Forgione’s third ask – better access to apprenticeships for MSMEs – as the top issue she’s keeping an eye out for.
“In his party conference speech earlier this year, the prime minister set out an ambition for the UK to have ‘the best education system in the western world’. One key thing to watch will be how much this ambition translates to direct economic action tomorrow.
“In our recent letter to the chancellor, we suggested, for example, revising funding models in order to allow small businesses easier access to take on apprentices. This would provide direct support to any exporting businesses looking to grow the depth of skills in their workforce.”