Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! It is looking like another heatwave is on the cards for next week so make sure to stay hydrated whilst enjoying the sunshine!

First up this week we would like to introduce you to a new MTA Associate Member! Paragon Commercial Finance joined at the beginning of the week. To find out what they do please go to their story.

Citation have designed a free checklist that sets out the most important employment rights and whether they apply during the probationary period. Citation have a 24/7 advice line you can get bespoke support on any of topics above and much more. They’ll also review or create all your key documentation -like contracts and policies – to help you conquer compliance and unlock business growth. Check out the checklist details in the story below.

BEIS sent out a new bulletin with the latest from their department. We have highlighted a few stories that may be of interest to you. Find information on the “Recovery loan scheme extended for 2 years”, “More SMEs and microbusinesses now eligible for Help to Grow: Digital” and “New guidance on employment status for workers and businesses” in the story below.

Did someone say MACH 2024? We have recently sent out the MACH 2024 Ballot pack with all the information you will need in order to complete an application for a stand in the balloted area of the show. Please do not panic if it hasn’t arrived! Take a look at the details in the story.

The MTA are co-hosting a free webinar with Control Energy Costs, to help you understand the implications of the current energy price hikes and what you can do to mitigate them. The presentations will be delivered by Liam Conway of Control Energy Costs, with contributions from our CEO Dave Elliott, who will update attendees on our current activities surrounding energy. Find out what they will include within the bullet points below.

Made Smarter recently published their 2022 market research report. It looks at the latest attitudes and approaches to implementing new technologies amongst almost 200 North West manufacturing and engineering SMEs. Read more on the article in their story.

The main economic headlines this week were shared between the interest rate decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee and the July manufacturing PMI data.  We take a look at these in more detail in separate articles below but in summary, the PMI’s generally saw lower readings than in June with an increase in the number of countries falling below the crucial 50 level;  however, despite both output and orders falling, the UK did manage to stay in positive territory.

In a separate article, we explore the MPC decision (which was far from unexpected) to raise UK interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75%.  There is lots to unpick in this but the two key headlines, apart from the rise in interest rates are the forecast of a shallow but fairly lengthy recession in the UK economy and that they now expect inflation to reach 13% following the October increase in the consumer energy price cop.  This is, therefore, a timely point at which to remind Members (from both MTA and EIA) about our Forecast Seminar which is being held on 20th October – more details at https://www.mta.org.uk/event/mta-forecast-seminar-2022.

Our other economic news includes the flash estimate of European GDP for the 2nd quarter where growth accelerated from the 1st quarter position despite a mixed set of trends among the limited number of countries who have published figures at this stage;  the other element is the latest orders figures from Japanese manufacturers of metal cutting machine tools.

Finally, the July edition of the MTA Business Survey is underway and you can access the questionnaire at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-jul22.  For operational reasons and due to the holiday season, this is likely to be delayed slightly this month so please take a couple of minutes to let us have your input to this as soon as possible and especially if you are going to be away.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Brief! Thank you for keeping up to date with us and we hope you all have a lovely weekend!