Chambers of Commerce say UK recovery is weak
Manufacturing confidence high, but growth 'too slow'
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The UK's economic recovery remains weak and the Coalition has failed to tackle the underlying reasons.
The British Chambers of Commerce surveyed 6,600 of its members and found efforts to move the economy towards increasing exports has failed.
Although manufacturers are having more luck with exports than with domestic sales, the BCC warned that continued weakness in the eurozone and in the US housing market means that the UK economy is still facing serious risks.
David Frost, director general of the BCC, said: "Britain's economic recovery is continuing but the pace of growth is too slow, and our economy is out of balance... We do not export enough goods and services, meaning we run up continual trade deficits.
"We accept the need to persevere with painful measures to cut the deficit. But the government must move beyond the rhetoric of growth, and introduce radical reforms to help businesses export, invest and create more jobs."
BCC members are still struggling with cashflow. There have been marginal improvements but survey results are still in negative territory. Pressure to push up prices is continuing – 38 per cent of manufacturers say there is pressure to hike prices thanks to increases in raw materials and inflation pressure elsewhere.
There is some good news though: manufacturing confidence remains high, it rose 12 points to 40 per cent. The BCC accepted that results were offset by fewer working days in the quarter. It expects GDP growth of 0.3 per cent for the quarter.
It called on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to postpone "premature interest rate rises" and the government to "implement more growth-enhancing policies". ®
COMMENTS
UK government is the PROBLEM - Labour or Conservative
BOTH of these two parties have been in charge while announcing that FOREIGN manufacturers are better value than British ones. This is of course total bullshit but can have nothing other than a disasterous effect on the companies concerned.
Imagine being the manufacturer of British tanks and the defence minister says they want to buy American because they are 'better value' - do you think you will ever sell a tank to anyone ever again?
Or perhaps the last manufacturer of trains in the country that invented them - listening to an announcement that the Germans are better value than you are (for the British government), not a chance of another sale for them - they should (I would) have shut the factory totally instantly, leeaving the half built trains where they were.
We see the Royal Wedding food served on Chinese plates - nothing from 'the potteries' there.
The Chinese supply the British Army with uniforms - no employment for the textile industry in Lancashire then.
The NHS goes to India for its software - no British jobs there
The Police go to Sweden or Germany for cars - we pay unemployed Peugeot, Rover, Jaguar workers.
The Army get their lorries from Renault so Bedford, Forden, ERF are left closed
The NHS gets ambulances from Germany and LDV is closed.
The government census is run by the Americans (so they get the work AND our data).
The list goes on for pages. Each time this happens we, the tax payers, pay TWICE, we pay once for the goods, and then for the benefits needed for the British workers who should be producing the goods. In the long term this trashes the British manufacturing base and we wend up supporting an ever increasing pile of unemployed former workers. This can NOT continue.
If it was just one party then we could vote for someone else, but its not, its ALL the major parties.
This is just stupid, any fool, any idiot, can add up the costs of sending the work abroad in terms of lost primary and secondary jobs, lost exports, lost profit, lost taxation and the huge bill for benefits it is clearly NEVER cheaper to send the work abroad. This lesson has been learnt to great effect by Germany, China, France, USA and others. Some have additional problems, but Germany and China do NOT import cars, lorries, software, services, tanks etc. from abroad. And for GOOD reason.
so...
latest news: Tories fail to help the manufacturing industry that they fucked up last time they were in!
i wonder if they think
yadda yadd bears and woods, pope catholic rumours
Dont want to interrupt your rant Dave 15
However, some key facts glossed over wrt Bombardier/Thameslink
1) Bombardier are a Canadian company
2) Bombardier would have been a more expensive choice
3) As Bombardier didn't get the contract, they slashed 1400 jobs. If they had got the contract, they were going to cut 1200 jobs.
4) No-one else, anywhere around the world, is remotely interested in buying Bombardier trains, hence the lack of orders.
5) The main reason Bombardier didn't get the contract is that part of the contract is contingent on leasing the trains back to the government over 30 years. This requires up-front borrowing. Bombardier Group has a less secure financial footing than Siemens, and hence borrowing is significantly more expensive - some £500m over the course of the £1.5bn contract. If we listen to your 'only local' rhetoric, taxpayers would be subsidizing a Canadian company for the next 30 years. No thanks.
Frankly, if we were to become the sort of inward looking, sycophantic country where everything must be handled 'in country', I'd be looking for the exit. Why should the taxpayer subsidize the inefficiency of these failed industries?
Also, China does import a mass of infrastructure spending. Been on a high speed train in China? Its German - as are the contents of most of their factories. If Britain's manufacturers could compete with the Germans in these sorts of sectors, then we wouldn't have these issues.
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