Welcome to the Friday Brief for week-ending 6 December.
The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was delivered this week. Of particular relevance for engineering based manufacturing were the increases in the budget and ambition for UK Export Finance. The additional support will see its commitment limit doubled and new effort going into promoting the Direct Lending and Working Capital schemes. There was also a commitment to undertaking a significant review of how UKTI works before next year’s budget statement.
The MTA was invited this week to a briefing on the shortage of engineers required to meet the needs of the UK’s manufacturing industry. The FT and BAE Systems hosted the briefing which highlighted a potential shortfall of 96,000 over the next four years and called for better careers advice on the sector to be made available to schools.
The economic news this week saw the UK PMI return the highest figures since February 2011. Production and new orders were also reported to be recording a 19 year high in November.
We have the story this week of the recent visit of HRH The Earl of Wessex to MTA member Renishaw plc to present the company’s 16th Queens Award for Enterprise. The Earl also made a 40th anniversary presentation to the Company’s co-founders Sir David McMurtry and John Deer.
There is also news of a one day conference on 22 January sponsored by UKTI entitled Meet the Mittelstand. We have full details in the Friday Brief.
Have a good weekend.