EEF urges Brown to ease taxes

EEF urges Brown to ease taxes

Martin Temple, director-general of the Engineering Employers' Federation, is to meet with the chancellor next week, to urge him to introduce measures to offset business uncertainty in the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

The most far-reaching proposal will be to cut national insurance contributions for employers by 0.3%, according to the FT. This would save employers Pounds 1bn a year, and help businesses cope with the effects of the 11 September attacks.

Temple will also call on the Gordon Brown to revamp the much-criticised climate change levy, by extending the qualification for discounts on energy use to manufacturing companies – saving businesses Pounds 200m.

And he will ask for the Treasury to speed up the relaxation of minimum funding requirements for pension funds, arguing that companies are doubling and even tripling their contributions to meet required standards, the FT reported today.

Temple, who represents the views of 6,000 engineering, manufacturing and technology-based companies, described the proposals as ‘modest’ compared with the $130bn (Pounds 90bn) fiscal package announced by George Bush.

He highlighted the plight of manufacturing, an industry officially in recession and said if the government did not do something, there was a danger of further decline.

Links

UK has ‘two speed’ economy, says CBI

Manufacturing falls signal economic gloom

EEF online

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