October 2020

News 10 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk October 2020 Fifty-three leading engineers from the UK and around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering in recognition of their outstanding and continuing contributions to the profession. They join an Academy on a mission to use the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and create an inclusive economy that works for everyone. All the new Fellows were formally admitted to Fellowship at the Academy’s online AGM on Tuesday 22 September, and they will add their expertise to a Fellowship of almost 1600 eminent engineers from both industry and academia. Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, commented: “As the UK’s National Academy for engineering and technology, we bring together an unrivalled community of leading business people and industrialists, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics from every part of engineering and technology. “The new Fellows who join us today are among the most talented and successful engineers working in the field today, leaders in areas from transport and our essential data infrastructure to lifesaving developments in medical research. We look forward to working with them and benefiting from their ideas and insight as we strive to inform public debate and provide workable solutions to our shared national and global challenges.” The complete list of Fellows elected in 2020 is available at http://raeng.org.uk/new-fellows-2020 Academy welcomes 53 leading UK and international engineers as new Fellows As the end to the Job Retention Schemes looms with redundancies already rising even before its expiration, one question has gained momentum in recent weeks, what comes next? The Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a series of measures to protect workers and businesses during the winter in the Winter Economy Plan. The key change, and no doubt will dominate headlines for days to come, pertains to the Job Support Scheme to mitigate unnecessary redundancies. There were also a number of announcements around other business support measures, these included Keeping VAT low which while not aiding directly the manufacturing sector, it will ease pressures for customers further down the supply-chain. However, we continue to campaign for Government to directly support critical subsectors such as Aerospace and Automotive too. Manufacturers that have deferred their VAT bills will also be afforded some extra room to manoeuvre their payment options through the New Payment Scheme, which will allow firms an option to pay back in smaller instalments. The announcement is a positive one for those UK manufacturers that have seen their cash-flow levels evaporate during the crisis, offering a manageable solution to businesses yet to see a return of orders. However, manufacturers should be careful as delaying these payments are not equivalent to eliminating them and if not managed correctly it could result in a double whammy of fees in over a years’ time. The likely consequence of which would lead to investment levels remaining protracted for the foreseeable future. The Chancellor also announced changes to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme Lenders of CIBLS finance will also have the ability to extend the length of loans from a maximum of six years to ten years for those businesses that need it. In addition, businesses that still wish to access further finance support will now find the deadline for applications has been extended to the end of November. For manufacturers who were sceptical about taking on additional debt earlier this year will not only find themselves with extra time to apply should it be necessary, but with an added bonus of more favourable repayment terms such as via Pay as you Grow. In the short-term this will support businesses looking to keep their doors open through the winter and is a step in the right direction to support jobs. The announcements will not only support UK manufacturers, but the majority of the private sector across the country. Although it is unfortunate there were no manufacturing subsector specific announcements made at this moment, a number of these moves will still support day-to-day costs as manufacturers need not fear a hefty bill in the post during the first quarter of next year. By MAKE UK chief executive, Stephen Phipson MAKE uk - the manufacturers’ organisation monthly news comment