Pre-Budget Report
We gave a guarded welcome to this week’s pre-budget report believing there were some helpful measures but expressing concern that there are a number of factors at play before this can be delivered. In particular, it is essential that government takes action to ensure that the acceleration of capital spending is carried out quickly and is directed towards ensuring that UK based companies benefit.
It is also vital that pressure is maintained on the Banks to deliver support for lending. We also added that looking beyond the current crisis business will be concerned that the increase in national insurance contributions is not the beginning of a trend towards increasing taxes on business.
Business Trends
According to our fourth quarter business trends survey and economic forecast for next year the outlook for our sector has taken a significant turn for the worse and trading conditions in 2009 are set to be some of the toughest for two decades.
The survey shows that the picture has changed significantly since the summer because of the turmoil in the financial markets and the downturn is now widespread across most sectors and regions. We are meeting the Secretary of State for Business & Enterprise, Lord Mandelson, next week and will be discussing the situation with him. We have also called for a further full point cut in interest rates by the Bank of England at its meeting next week.
Work & Pensions
We met Lord McKenzie of Luton, the Work and Pensions Minister who has responsibility for health and safety and pensions issues. We discussed a series of EU Directives that would damage business whilst delivering little, if any, improvement in health & safety including the Electromagnetic Fields Directive (EMF) and Optical Radiation and likely Musculoskeletal Disorders Directives.
The Minister agreed to look further into the opportunities to change the course of these Directives following the current review of EMF. We also discussed our key role as a strategic partner with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and committed to look for ways to work together under the new HSE strategy which is to be launched next week.
We also discussed the pensions reform programme, particularly the need for some financial support for smaller employers when personal accounts are introduced in 2012 and, the importance of implementing an ongoing programme to deregulate occupational pensions schemes, a key element of this reform programme for members.
We also expressed our concerns about increasing the proportion of member-nominated trustees from a third to a half of all trustees and explained why members felt it was important to retain the default retirement age of 65.
Climate Change
Ahead of the announcement by Lord Turner next week of the Uk’s 1st low carbon budgets we have published a major report saying that government must put cost-effectiveness and supply security at the heart of a revised low carbon energy policy if the UK is to meet environmental, economic and industrial objectives.
The report also urges the newly formed Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) to take the opportunity to take a more strategic approach to developing energy policy. To back our a made a number of recommendations which will provide better value for money for the taxpayer and energy consumers and help the UK take advantage of business opportunities.
Work and wellbeing success
We welcomed the government’s response to Dame Carol Black’s proposals to promote rehabilitation and get people back to work, believing the recommendations will make a significant contribution to the culture change needed to tackle unnecessary sickness absence. In particular we welcomed proposals for a ‘fit note’ which we had originally proposed.
On a wider basis we believe the new proposals will allow employers to make temporary modifications which will allow employees to work as they gradually recover. Secondly, it will help tackle the frustration employers have felt by waiting lists for NHS interventions and the early intervention offered by the proposed service is a major step forward.
