Make UK delivers pre-Budget demand for manufacturing
16 Nov 2025
Britain’s manufacturers are pre-empting the forthcoming Budget by urging the Government to focus solely on measures to boost growth.
Industry association Make UK warned against further increases in business taxes, as well as a continued failure to reduce firms' energy costs.
Speaking after the release of his organisation’s recently published industrial data report, Make UK CEO Stephen Phipson said:
“Business is facing a potent combination of weak demand at home and abroad, as well as escalating costs across the board. If we are to get growth of the floor then it is going to be business that provides it and this budget simply has to have growth as the number one focus.
“In particular, energy costs are now an existential threat to deindustrialising the UK and we need to get them down as a matter of urgency. Government needs to stop sitting on its hands on the energy support scheme and continually kicking the can down the road hoping the problem will resolve itself. The scheme needs to be brought forward and backdated to when it was first announced.”
Make UK is calling for six key measures to be announced in the Budget in order to protect against the threat of deindustrialisation in the country.
These include:
- Expansion of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) to all manufacturers with backdating to June 2025
- Ringfencing of the £1.1 billion raised from the Growth & Skills Levy for investment in skills
- Targeted exemption from business rates for investments in green technologies
- No further increases in national insurance contributions
- Targeted electrification discounts for companies switching from fossil sources to electricity
- Expansion of full expensing to include leasing
Make UK said its data showed business costs have already risen significantly this year in response to the increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs).
More than nine in ten companies say the increase in NICs has impacted their business in the form of reductions in pay increases (54%) and pay freezes (29%). Half of companies (51%) have frozen recruitment.
Added concerns included changes to Inheritance Tax and the looming implementation of the Employment Rights Bill, with 95% of respondents saying they were concerned about the pending legislation while more than two thirds (67%) predicted it would negatively impact their business.
