UK’S NUMBER ONE MANUFACTURING EXPORTER SAYS 2015 BUDGET WILL HELP
BUT MORE WAS NEEDED

Britain’s £50 Billion chemical industry has said George Osborne’s last Budget of this Parliament will help the sector, but there is more to do.

Steve Elliott, the Association’s Chief Executive said: “I welcome some of the measures announced earlier today by the Chancellor that build on existing commitments to manufacturing and specifically to sectors like the one I represent. The help for Energy Intensive businesses (both through direct compensation measures and support for North Sea investment), the commitment to innovation and maintained Capital Investment allowances are all good news for UK manufacturers in general .

Accelerating compensation for the small scale Feed In Tariff - from April 2016 to later this year, the £1 million public investment in the Centre for Process Innovation and no immediate reduction in allowances for Capital Investment are welcomed by the industry.

However we really needed the Chancellor to go further. Compensation for the Renewables Obligation – representing the lion’s share of renewable policy costs faced by chemical manufacturers has not been advanced in the way we all required. Our competitor countries have either been compensated much earlier or not imposed the costs at all.

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Notes to Editors:

For further comment, please contact Simon Marsh 07951 389197

Chemical Industries Association (CIA) is the organisation that represents chemical and pharmaceutical businesses throughout the UK www.cia.org.uk