30th Mar 2023
In March, Hallam MD, Rob Pickersgill, attended an important MAKE UK regional meeting at the AMRC, University of Sheffield, which included a tour of AMRC facilities exclusively for MAKE UK delegates. The meeting was held on the day after the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and MAKE UK’s Bhavina Bharkhada presented a summary of the Statement for attendees.
Rob comments “In my opinion, and I stress that this is a personal view, the overriding sentiment amongst delegates was profound disappointment with the content of the Statement. In particular, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a new Industrial Strategy emerging, setting out any kind of vision for the future of UK manufacturing and identifying areas for meaningful support. Areas such as energy costs, staff shortages, training needs and capital investment funding, for example. The feeling was that any improved help announced (e.g. investment zones, childcare support, support for over 50s returning to work) was not going to have a material impact.”
