UK industry needs better supply chains, stay in ‘reformed’ EU – CBI

LONDON (ICIS)–The industrial sector in the UK needs “targeted action to revitalise domestic supply chains” which could inject £30bn (€38bn) into the economy by 2025 and create 500,000 jobs during that period, the UK’s Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said on Monday.

A spokesperson for the CBI added that UK business wanted to stay in a “reformed” EU, meaning the European club of countries “should focus on what it does very well, trade deals for example, and influence less in national issues.”

The current UK prime minister, David Cameron, has promised he will call a referendum to decide the fate of the UK within the EU in 2017, with the intention to renegotiate some chapters of the EU treaties in order to keep his country outside some of the clauses.

The report published on Monday by CBI’s, entitled ‘Pulling together’, warns of underinvestment in the UK’s research and development (R&D) sector and a “growing skills crisis” which are vital for sectors like chemicals, plastics and metals, it said.

The UK’s group, the largest in the country representing business, asked the government and business to collaborate towards strengthening supply chains and innovation, as well as creating “better quality products.”

“Optimism within industry is now rising at a strong rate, and investment intentions are on the up. But it’s time for some fresh thinking. We need to see a bold strategy that breathes new life into our supply chains, and makes the UK the destination of choice for manufacturing high value products,” said Katja Hall, CBI’s deputy director general.

Hall said the R&D investment of France outstrips the UK’s R&D investment by 40% while only 3% of graduates end up in engineering or technology jobs.

The CBI asks for 3% of GDP to be invested in R&D as well as tax breaks for those companies investing in innovation, and doubling the budget of Innovate UK, the country’s agency for promoting industrial innovation during the period 2015-2020.

It also demanded to “ramp up female participation in manufacturing, with Davies-style targets,” referring to the report published in 2011 by the UK’s Lord Davies, a former government minister, in which he targeted 25% of FTSE-100 board directors to be women by 2015.

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