Enter our Awards | Energy and climate change lobbying intensifies | Shadow Business Secretary hears the business concerns of members | Better regulation | EEF Chief Economist briefs Bank of England | Weekly Focus – The Red Tape Challenge | In the news | Week in Review | The week ahead
NEWS
Stand out from your competitors by entering our awards
Entries for the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards 2011 close 31 July 2011 – but there’s still time to download your forms and enter.
We want to know how you’ve grown your business, used innovation to transform your shop floor, rejuvenated your skills and training, increased your exports, or improved your environmental outlook. Our awards are your opportunity to celebrate success, boost morale and build your business reputation so you can stand out from your competitors.
We are seeking stories of inspiration, passion, ingenuity, and sheer hard work – but entering our awards is easy.
> Download your entry forms today and see how simple it is
For more information on our award categories and advice on how to enter - phone 020 7654 1540 or email rmoss@eef.org.uk
Don’t miss out, entries close 31 July!
Energy and climate change lobbying intensifies
EEF has recently held a series of meetings with key parliamentarians to highlight our concerns over the government’s uncompetitive energy policies, as well as set out our thoughts on the wider policy landscape. EEF hosted a roundtable dinner with Energy Minister Greg Barker MP, at which members were able to directly set out how current proposals will affect their business. This was a joint event held in conjunction with the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Steel and Metal Related Industries, and the Group’s Chair, Jessica Morden MP, also played a key part in the dinner.
Following this event EEF held discussions with a group of backbench MPs, including former Business Minister Pat McFadden MP, in the House of Commons to outline these issues. Finally EEF and another group of members later met with Meg Hillier MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to discuss our concerns and also outline our broader thinking on the green vs growth divide in UK public policy-making. EEF will continue to lobbying over these issues over the coming months, and energy and climate change issues will form a key feature of our party conference events in the Autumn.
For more information contact Gareth Stace, Head of Climate & Environment Policy
Shadow Business Secretary hears the business concerns of members
EEF hosted a private dinner for members with John Denham MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Mr Denham is currently leading an internal review into the Labour party’s approach to business policy and in our discussions we covered a range of issues, including the business environment, access to finance and the kind of approach to industrial policy that a future Labour Government might adopt.
For more information contact Steve Radley, Director of Policy & External Affairs
Better regulation
EEF attended the Regulated Business Forum. It was recognised that our help is needed to show government the complex regulatory burden of environmental policies. EEF will be ensuring government recognises the full impact of regulations from different policy departments. It was noted that the government would be establishing more business exchanges, such as the one we are hosting with the Environment Agency. Charlotte Danvers, a Senior Advisor on Waste has joined EEF until the end of the year to explore the barriers you face in moving waste up the hierarchy and the challenges in complying with waste legislation. Charlotte will be conducting interviews with members over coming months to update the EEF waste position, please contact Charlotte for more information.
EEF Chief Economist briefs Bank of England
As part of our regular briefing of officials EEF met with Bank of England officials this week, ahead of the August Inflation Report to discuss the current state and prospects for manufacturing. We highlighted the findings from recent EEF member surveys on the state of manufacturing and the outlook for output, orders and investment; pay settlements and managing input price increases.
For more information contact Lee Hopley, Chief Economist
WEEKLY FOCUS
The Red Tape Challenge - a call to action for members
The regulatory burden bearing down on UK companies has increased significantly over the past decade. Between 2002 and 2010, the cost to UK business of the annual flow of new regulation more than doubled from £5bn in 2002 to £11.5bn in 2010.
The Red Tape Challenge (RTC) is a government initiative designed to help deliver on its commitment to cut the burden of regulation weighing down on the economy. Businesses are invited to tell the Government, through a dedicated website, which regulations are working and which are not.
There are two parts to the RTC. First, every few weeks regulations pertaining to a specific sector or industry are published on the website for scrutiny. Regulations affecting manufacturing will be in focus for four weeks from 21st July 2011. Second, there is an ongoing opportunity to comment on and challenge regulations in six cross-cutting areas affecting the whole economy - health and safety, environment, equalities, pensions, company law and employment law.
Participating in the RTC is an opportunity to tell government how regulations are affecting your business, how they could be improved and where they should be scrapped.
Manufacturers feeling the burden of regulation are encouraged to participate. To get involved got to www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Please see the attached briefing note for more details on how to participate, to find out how we are getting involved and an insight into some of areas of regulation we believe are in urgent need of reform.
For more information contact Roger Salomone, Energy & Regulation Adviser
EEF IN THE NEWS
Energy led our main comment this week in response to the Electricity Market Reforms, with comment in advance in the Sunday Telegraph and post the announcement in the Daily Telegraph and FT. Separately, our Chief Executive, Terry Scuoler, was interviewed by the Daily Telegraph as part of a feature on manufacturing whilst our response to the publication of the first small business finance monitor was reported in The Independent.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
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 UK Trade
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The seasonally adjusted deficit on trade in goods widened to £8.5bn in May, compared from £7.6bn in April. Although exports grew quickly and the value of exports hit a record level import growth outpaced this. |
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 Inflation
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CPI inflation and RPI inflation fell in June, though both remain elevated, with CPI inflation at 4.2% and the RPI measure at 5.0%. The strongest downward pressure on CPI came from recreation and culture – partly as a result of early summer sales on electronic goods. Upward pressures came from food prices, which rose by 6.9% over the year, and fuel prices, which rose by 15.1%. |
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 Labour Market Statistics
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The number of people in employment rose by 50,000 in the three months to May, while the ILO measure of unemployment fell by 26,000. The ILO unemployment rate remained stable, at 7.7%. However, the Claimant Count measure of unemployment – which records the number of people claiming Job Seekers’ Allowance – rose again to 1.5 million in June, up 24,500 since May. This pushed the claimant count rate up to 4.7%. |
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 EEF Pay Settlements
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The three-month average pay settlement was 2.5% in June and, following revisions to the data for May, has now been unchanged since April. The monthly average, however, crept up from 2.6% to 2.8%. In the three months to June, 16.7% of pay settlements were between 0.0 and 2.0%, up a little from the month earlier. |
THE WEEK AHEAD
Wed 20th: MPC minutes
Thu 21st: Public Sector Finances; Retail Sales; Trends in Lending
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