Member News
The Food and Drink Federation outline the priorities of the food manufacturing industry ahead of today's Budget.
There's no doubt that 2010 was a challenging year for the economy, but the food and drink sector produced another year of strong performance which saw success both at home and on the international market where we broke the £10bn export barrier.
We have been delighted to see ourselves high up the political agenda – our sector was highlighted in the advanced manufacturing growth review last November. We have also been leading the skills debate and have launched our careers campaign 'Taste Success – A Future in Food' which builds on the highly successful work done by the Scottish Food and Drink Federation. Last December we re-launched our Environmental Five-Fold Ambition having reached tough targets ahead of schedule.
Whether it's through our contribution to economic health, employment or the environment, food and drink companies have been making the difference in public policy and on people's lives.
But we have not reached the limit of our ambitions. We have a firm belief that through a collaborative approach between us and government, and ongoing dialogue to remove barriers that have placed limitations on our progression, we can do more to enhance the economy, reduce the trade deficit and create the much-needed private sector employment opportunities.
The food manufacturing industry is calling for government to:
· Reduce regulatory burdens by acting early in EU negotiations on new laws to ensure that these do not adversely impact on UK manufacturing and affect competitiveness; move away from a hazard-based approach to regulation and enforcement and move towards a risk-based system; review and improve food safety official controls, remove duplication and ensure more co-ordination.
· Help us export more by making food and drink a priority sector for UKTI and pump-priming an export support service for SMEs; raise the profile of our sector and products through trade missions and ministerial support at key events; encourage Local Enterprise Partnerships to consider exports as well as inward investment.
· Help us to innovate by improving the R&D tax credit schemes resulting in a simpler application process; a wider definition of qualifying R&D that accommodates manufacturers as over 90 per cent of SME support is handed out to hi-tech R&D-focused companies; and ensure that businesses in a loss-making position do not lose out. Our industry also needs focused support from the Manufacturing Advisory Service to facilitate investment in robotics given the growth potential of our sector and the need to remain globally competitive.
· Help manufacturing benefit from a skilled workforce by working with government to develop the right skills framework that will equip industry with the technical skills needed to innovate and improve productivity to remain competitive.
·Provide a clear framework to encourage resource efficiency and moves to low carbon by retaining 'green business' initiatives such as the existing Climate Change Agreements and Climate Change Levy abatements which have been key drivers in our industry's highly successful carbon-reduction activities to date.
We believe that all of our 'asks' are realistic and could make a significant difference to our ability and capacity to deliver even better benefits to the UK.
We have recently been working with the government and other partners on the Public Health Responsibility Deal to reduce obesity and improve health in the UK. As part of this, a key message has been for manufacturers to go 'further and faster' to deliver this change. I believe that with government backing, and delivery on these key requests, the food industry can go 'further and faster' in improving our economy too.
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