ANNUAL MANUFACTURING REPORT 2016

ECONOMY, POLICY & GROWTH
ANNUAL
MANUFACTURING
REPORT2016
4
5
To what extent do you expect the government’s declared
policies, such as the Northern Powerhouse, and its broader
industrial strategy including Local Enterprise Partnerships,
for example, will help your business to grow over the next
five years?
2015
They will help a lot
They will help a little
They will probably make no
difference
50%
They will
help a little
This is the first year that we have asked this question in this form.
The overall response to specific aspects of the government’s
economic policy can be summarised as cautious approval. Exactly
half of the sample expect that policies such as the Northern
Powerhouse will make some difference but fewer than one in 10
(8%) believe that they will help a lot. Less than four per cent expect
the effects to be negative and no-one expects them to be harmful
– exactly the same number as believe that they are nowhere near
enough. That last result is a little strange; whenever manufacturers
voice an opinion about government policy it tends to be to ask it to
do a great deal more or to get out completely.
In your experience do manufacturers in the following
countries receive more or less government support than
manufacturers in the UK?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
8%
39%
4%
0%
0%
They will hinder business prospects
They will be positively harmful to
our business
They do not go anywhere near
far enough
6 What effect do you expect that global
influences will have on the UK economy?
2015
Very positive
Quite negative
Very negative
52%
Quite positive
6%
42%
0%
Manufacturers continue to maintain that
competitors in other countries receive more
government help than we in the UK do,
and the list continues to be led by Germany
(76%) and France (70%). The one that seems
to have slipped back a lot is China; 57% of
respondents to our survey last year reckoned
that Chinese companies got a lot more
government help than manufacturers in the
UK but that proportion this year is 46%. Italy
and India (34%) have overtaken the USA to
move into fourth position in the perceived
league of recipients of government largesse
but only just: 32% of respondents still believe
that, for all the talk of free markets and
opposition to government interference,
American companies get more public
support than the British (down from 40%).
Estimates of Russian government support
for their companies has fallen significantly,
from 30% in 2015 to just 14% a year later. This
could be because fewer companies are
directly engaged with Russian businesses
as a result of the ongoing EU economic
boycott. South Africa and Australia are in
the same teen-percentage bracket; the
proportion of responders identifying the
Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and Spain
as particularly advantaged ranged across
the 20s – but the country with the highest
percentage reckoning that its support wasn’t
as good as the UK’s was also Spain, with 24%
mentioning it.
0%
Germany
France
More
The Netherlands
Italy
Less
Spain
Switzerland
Canada
USA
Australia
Don’t know
Brazil
Russia
India
China
South Africa
About the same
The view of the global economic situation
has improved since last year, despite the
downturn in China’s fortunes: nearly 58% of
respondents have either a “quite positive” or
“very positive” position. This is a reversal from
2015, when 56% responded that they were
“quite negative”.