Matt Mahony, BWF Policy Executive
With the EU referendum less than a couple of months away, you will have no doubt heard plenty in the media about ‘Brexit’, ‘Bremain’, ‘Project Fear’, and the subsequent squabbling between government ministers on either side of the referendum campaigns.
In the run up to 23rd June you will be hearing a lot more insight/white noise (delete as appropriate) from commentators on what remaining in or exiting the EU could mean in terms of trade, product standards, sustainable construction, working conditions, immigration and the economy as a whole – it will surely still be one of the hot topics at BWF Members’ Day 2016 two weeks later.
The referendum on the horizon is already casting a shadow on manufacturers with the Construction Product Association’s latest State of Trade Survey indicating that despite sales increasing for a twelfth consecutive quarter, manufacturers’ optimism for Q2 and for the next 12 months is showing signs of sliding due to uncertainty surrounding the poll.
Anyway, you can read more about the pros and cons of EU membership here, but those of you outside London, where the mayoral elections have dominated the local media, could be forgiven for forgetting that the biggest set of UK elections (outside of a general election) for some time will be held on 5 May.
These include elections for the Scottish parliament, National Assembly of Wales, Northern Ireland Assembly plus UK local elections (including 124 councils in England) and Mayoral elections including London, Bristol, Liverpool and Salford.
Yet again these are a fantastic opportunity for you to get your voice heard, to ensure that candidates and the newly elected stick to their promises and put our industry firmly in focus. To help with this we have draft letters to MPs/political candidates that you can use and of course there is our simple, recently updated guidance on how to ‘get your voice heard’, plus the BWF manifesto. (picture: Maria Caulfield MP meets BWF Chief Executive Iain McIlwee and BWF President David Pattenden (centre) at David's factory)
Putting on a united front is crucial and despite the column inches/pixels devoted to the decline of BHS and the steel industry, the UK timber products sector deserves its place at the top table. We may not be perceived by politicians as being ‘too big to fail’ or be associated with a shop-worn household brand but the joinery sector as a whole is a £3.8 billion industry operating at the heart of UK manufacturing. Despite the construction products industry being twice the size of the automotive market and more than five times the size of the aerospace sector, its work seems to slip below the radar, with the manufacturing sector still seemingly typified by cars and aeroplanes.
BWF of course does a vast amount of work on your behalf whether it is meeting policymakers face to face, collaborating with the organisations such as Build UK, the CPA and the Structural Timber Association to boost the UK Timber Products manufacturing sector, or contributing to the consultations affecting joinery manufacturers such as red tape, apprentices and building regulations.
With our Chief Executive Iain McIlwee a passionate and proactive contributor to the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) Business Reference Panel, last week we made our own response to the Government’s Cutting Red Tape review of Local Authority-enforced regulation (as well as feeding in to the Construction Products Association’s response).
You can read them both here (scroll down to the main BWF comment 27th April). Feedback from members indicated that we should emphasise in our responses that where ‘red tape’ exists it should trip up the non-compliant, not simply strangle the good companies!
It was a useful opportunity to the highlight the effects of brutal cutbacks in trading standards and building control and how the lack of enforcement and clarity only serves to punish the good – those who have invested in following the regulation – as it tilts the playing field in favour of the less scrupulous and undermines the very market that the legislation is set upon improving. An example we used on the Fire Door side was how serious underfunding affects enforcement of the Fire Safety Order. The London Fire Brigade currently carry out 14,000 inspections per year and there are 700,000 premises in London. At this rate it would take 50 years to conduct all the required inspections!
Compliance often comes with a cost and in order for competition to be fair there needs to be a level playing field. The consultation/comments board is easy to use – feel free to add supporting messages to the board
And of course we are always grateful for feedback on local and national issues such as the Apprenticeship Levy, late payment or the EU referendum that are impacting on your trade. The BWF team is always willing to discuss industry issues and you can also address these through the Code of Conduct visits, technical committees and through the BWF Council.
Thanks for your support!
