Manufacturing association Make UK said it should cancel climate levies imposed on industrial energy costs and adopt a fixed industrial energy price
Britain needs to cut industrial energy bills that are the highest among major advanced economies if its aspirations for a healthy manufacturing sector are to succeed, industry body Make UK said on Monday.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is working on an industrial strategy to put British manufacturing — hit hard by Brexit, soaring energy costs and global trade wars — on a solid footing for the years ahead.
Manufacturing association Make UK said it should cancel climate levies imposed on industrial energy costs and adopt a fixed industrial energy price. Britain had the highest industrial energy prices out of any International Energy Agency member country in 2023, reflecting its dependence on gas and its role in setting electricity prices.
“If we do not address the issue of high industrial energy costs in the UK as a priority, we risk the security of our country,” Make UK chief executive officer Stephen Phipson said.
“We will fail to attract investment in the manufacturing sector and will rapidly enter a phase of renewed de-industrialization.” Britain has de-industrialized — defined as the share of manufacturing in overall economic output — faster than in any other major European country over the last 30 years, according to a Reuters analysis of national accounts data.
Manufacturing hit a record low 9 percent of economic output last year, crowded out by the dominant services sector which now drives the majority of the country’s exports — a first among Group of Seven advanced economies.
Alan Johnson, a senior executive for manufacturing, supply chain and purchasing at Nissan Motor, said its Sunderland plant in the north east of England had the highest energy costs out of any of its facilities in the world.
“The proposals being put forward by Make UK … would send a strong message to investors that the UK remains committed to creating a more competitive environment for electric vehicle manufacturing,” Johnson said.
Doctors threaten co-ordinated strikes
Doctors are threatening co-ordinated industrial action to bring the NHS to an effective standstill unless pay demands are met. Resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – have suggested they will work together with consultants and specialists to maximise the impact.
The move comes as a ballot is held over strikes that could last six months in England, despite Health Secretary Wes Streeting begging medics to accept inflation-busting pay offers. Streeting said walkouts should be the last resort, with warnings they would be ‘immensely disruptive for patient care’.
He pointed out that the average 5.4 per cent award for resident doctors is the highest in the public sector. They controversially claim wages have fallen 23 per cent in real terms since 2008. ‘I met twice with Resident Doctors in May and at the last meeting I offered to meet their entire committee. I can’t offer a higher pay increase: resident doctors have the highest pay award in the entire public sector. These are not grounds that warrant strike action,’ Mr Streeting said.
The co-chairs of the British Medical Association (BMA) resident doctors committee are calling on members to vote for strikes. Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt told The Sunday Times that consultants and specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors could work together over their separate disputes.
Dr Ryan, who works in Nottingham, said: ‘We know how much the strikes last time were disruptive to patient care and the waiting list, but we also know exactly how much they cost the government and it was more than what it would cost to get to full pay restoration.
‘Resident doctors are balloting for strike action but now you’ve got the consultant committee and you’ve got the SAS doctors also in a pay dispute with the Government. ‘So last time we ended up co-ordinating some action and it was immensely disruptive for patient care, and we can see that on the horizon for this Government too. We will have a mandate that runs from the end of July to the beginning of January 2026,’ she continued. I am hoping that we will never get to the point where we have to take strike action but… we have three grades of doctors that are in pay disputes with the Government and there could be terrible disruption if the Government doesn’t intervene soon.’ Dr Nieuwoudt, a resident doctor in Liverpool, claimed Mr Streeting has become unwilling to engage.
‘(He) seems to have gone from being the guy that was saying, ‘Get in the room; talk it out; solve the problem,’ to the guy that’s not even willing to have that conversation with us,’ he told the newspaper
