Following today’s Government announcement on support that will be provided to business through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the Chemical Industry – one of the UK’s biggest manufacturing exporters – has welcomed the much needed immediate relief, but stressed the need to offer much more long term certainty equipping UK businesses to attract investment and growth in the UK.

Steve Elliott, Chief Executive of the Chemical Industries Association, said “with prices likely to be remaining high beyond the 6-month support how do we make sure the much vaunted 3-month review starting in 10 days' time gets the data needed from all industries to make its recommendations”. He added “I am also concerned about the short term nature of outlook. The UK desperately needs a long-term energy plan, and a clear direction from Government on the UK’s many resources and geographical advantages that could help us deliver new industries and new jobs. Chemical businesses want to be the supplier to those companies, and we do so now, but we all want to know what is the Government’s long term plan and it needs to go beyond the next election as many other countries do”.

Elliott concluded “For us it is not just the cost of gas as a direct energy source to allow industrial plants to operate, but the use of it as a key component of the raw materials that we use. This is a real chance to turn Made In Britain from a slogan to an actual long-term reality. Chemical businesses are ready to work with Government now and show how at low cost this can be done.”

ENDS

NOTES

For more information or to interview Steve Elliott, please get in touch - Simon Marsh at MarshsS@cia.org.uk or 07951 389197.

• Businesses who make chemical products and solutions are integral to something like 96% of all manufactured goods.  Whether it is ingredients for food and medicines; paints and coatings for cars and planes or materials for mobile phones and electric vehicle batteries, the chemical industry is truly the “industry of industries” – also playing a critical role in the nation’s response to Covid-19 through its supply of hand sanitiser, PPE and vaccine ingredients.
• Chemical businesses are located throughout the UK, with many of them clustered together in the North East of England, North West of England and Central Scotland.  These factories and laboratories, operated by a highly trained and skilled workforce, make a significant contribution towards the UK’s productivity performance – double that of any other manufacturing industry and triple that of any part of the UK economy.
• Nearly half a million people are employed in the sector or have roles that are dependent on the sector. Chemical workers typically earn 35% more than other manufacturing industries and 54% more than the average worker.
• From Runcorn to the Humber Bank; from Teesside to Grangemouth, chemical businesses and their employees right across the country are essential to the Government’s levelling-up agenda. 
• We are one of the country’s biggest manufacturing exporters, sending goods to the value of more than £57 billion to other countries. The EU represents our most important market, but we continue to work closely with Government to inform and secure UK trade deals with other key chemical markets such as Japan and the USA.