Friday Brief (01/03/2024) W09

Good afternoon and welcome to the first Friday Brief of the Month! March has come around quick which probably means April will be here in no time at all! Are you prepared for MACH 2024? It’s only about 6 weeks away!

We would like to begin this week’s Newsletter with a note from Citation. Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, join our Associate Member Citation on Thursday 7 March at 11am for an exclusive webinar Tackling the top issues women face in the workplace in 2024. Find out what will be included in the story below.

A report on the net zero economy – sectors working to deliver reduced emissions – found growth of 9% was achieved last year in the UK. Produced by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Economics this week, the report also finds that this growth was distributed across the UK, rather than concentrated in London, in a boost to ‘levelling up’ ambitions and efforts to reduce regional inequalities. Check put more below.

The British Business Bank is launching its £400 million Midlands Engine Investment Fund II today, unlocking additional funding to help smaller businesses in the West Midlands prosper and thrive. The fund will drive sustainable economic growth by supporting new and growing businesses across the whole of the Midlands, through investment strategies that best meet the needs of these firms. To apply for the funding and find out more details about what is included, please go to the story below.

The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) are working with the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA) to promote British companies at IMTEX 2025, from 23 – 29 January 2025 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bengaluru. The MTA are recruiting UK companies to exhibit on a UK Pavilion which is open to both members and non-members, and distributors/agents promoting UK products. If you are interested, please contact Karen, you can find her email address in the story.

The Government reaffirms its commitment to the UK’s 5.6 million SMEs by setting up a new SME Business Council. Almost every business in the country is a small business (99.9%) who in turn support 27 million jobs across the UK, accounting for £4.5 trillion of annual turnover. And the Help to Grow campaign website has been relaunched and refreshed, as a one-stop shop for SMEs to find the information they need to grow and scale up. This includes helping small firms to clearly identify what funding they can access. Take a look at more below.

The government has announced updates to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Taking effect from 24 March 2024, some of the changes will apply to goods moving into Northern Ireland. From 24 March, you can no longer use the NIREM code for goods that don’t meet the criteria to move under UKIMS, even if they are ‘not at risk’ due to the applicable EU rate of duty being zero or equal to or less than the UK rate, in the case of goods moving from a country outside both the UK and the EU. Read more on the topic in the story.

The leading economic news this week is the Purchasing Managers Index for the manufacturing sector which is being released today. Our publishing schedules mean that we don’t yet have the data from the Americas, but what we do have, with one major exception, is a cautiously positive picture. This may – and, admittedly, that is a very big “may” – represent the start of a turning point for the global manufacturing sector, although the significant reduction in the reading for Germany and the continued issues with shipping around the Red Sea are significant adverse markers in a trend that was generally a little better than in January.

The other economic news article this week has a couple of elements from the usual quiet end to the month. The European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Index fell slightly from the levels we saw around the turn of the year and remains below its long-run average. Industry confidence was broadly unchanged but remains at the relatively low levels we have seen for the past 8 months. The other report is brief coverage of the UK’s data on spending on R&D; this is only for 2022 but comes from an updated methodology so, hopefully, will be a better indicator. It shows the manufacturing sector in a good light as it is responsible for broadly the same proportion of total R&D expenditure as the much larger service sector.

Finally, the February edition of the MTA Business Survey will be launching today and you can access the questionnaire at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-feb24. We hope that you can spare a couple of minutes to let us have your feedback to this survey which will give you a quick overview of the manufacturing technology sector in the UK against which to benchmark your own activities.

That concludes the Friday Brief for today! We hope you have a great weekend!

ECONOMIC NEWS

European Commission Economic Sentiment Indicator, February 2024: The European Commission (EC) draws from a range of surveys to construct confidence indicators for five sectors of the economy and then uses these to calculate up its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) which is converted to an index based on the long-run average. The February* report shows the […]

PURCHASING MANAGERS INDEX FOR MANUFACTURING

Our publishing schedules mean that we don’t yet have the global manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) or the figures for the countries of the Americas or South Korea (the latter is not out until Monday) – we will update this report and the charts next week – but the data released so far today suggests […]

UPDATE ON GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION ON TRADING WITH NORTHERN IRELAND

The government has announced updates to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Taking effect from 24 March 2024, some of the changes will apply to goods moving into Northern Ireland. NIREM changes The operation of the NIREM code used by some traders to declare their goods as ‘not at risk’ will function differently, as traders who […]

NEW SME BUSINESS COUNCIL

The Government reaffirms its commitment to the UK’s 5.6 million SMEs by setting up a new SME Business Council. Chaired by Small Business Minister, Kevin Hollinrake, the Council will work alongside the PM’s Business Council to tackle the key issues facing small firms who will be given new levels of access direct to government. Almost […]

IMTEX 2025 Tooltech 2025 and Digital Manufacturing

International Machine Tool & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition 23 – 29 January 2025 Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bengaluru, India The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) are working with the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA) to promote British companies at IMTEX 2025, from 23 – 29 January 2025 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bengaluru. The MTA […]

£400m fund launched to support Midlands small businesses

Net zero economic growth shows regional equality

A report on the net zero economy – sectors working to deliver reduced emissions – found growth of 9% was achieved last year in the UK. ‘The UK’s net zero economy: The scale and geography of the net zero economy in the UK’ paints a positive picture of growth in contrast to the wider economy. […]

TACKLING THE TOP ISSUES WOMEN FACE IN THE WORKPLACE IN 2024

Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, join our Associate Member Citation on Thursday 7 March at 11am for an exclusive webinar Tackling the top issues women face in the workplace in 2024. In this one-hour session they’ll shed light on some of the critical topics including: · Navigating the menopause: Understanding and support in the workplace · Maternity leave: Rights, benefits, […]

Friday Brief