15 November 2013

Positive exchange between printers and parliamentarians at Westminster dinner

A networking dinner hosted by the BPIF at the House of Commons last month enabled member representatives to discuss current industry concerns with parliamentarians from all three main parties. 

Government and Industry Committee members Nigel Lyon (Pinstripe Print), Tony Bellis (3M UK), Mark Cooper (Avery) and Terrye Teverson (KCS Print) attended the dinner, together with Polestar CEO Barry Hibbert, Berforts Group MD Gerald White, BPIF CEO Kathy Woodward, and Public Affairs Adviser Andrew Brown. We met with All Party Print Group Chairman Lord (Martin) O'Neill of Clackmannan (Lab), Marcus Jones MP (Con - Nuneaton), Stephen Metcalfe (Con - South Basildon and East Thurrock), Dan Rogerson (LD - North Cornwall), Gerry Sutcliffe MP (Lab - Bradford South) and Lord (Robin) Teverson (LD). Two of our guests received Ministerial appointments that day: Dan Rogerson as Minister for Waste and Resources at DEFRA, and Marcus Jones as PPS to Financial Secretary to the Treasury Sajid Javid MP.

On the Government's attitude to using printed media, we reminded the parliamentarians that the Home Office's decision to rely solely on a central website to host information about candidates for last year's Police Commissioner elections, made despite prior protests lodged by the BPIF, had been followed by the lowest recorded turnout (15%) of any peacetime non-local government election in the UK - the result of lack of awareness and voter apathy. We argued that in view of the importance to democracy of ensuring that voters are engaged more effectively in future elections, government needs to use communications methods that provide maximum impact and value for money rather than focusing solely on minimising costs.

On energy policy, we stressed the need for urgent action to curb rising energy costs, highlighting their impact on printers both as direct energy users and also as consumers of energy intensively produced raw materials such as ink and paper.

We highlighted recent proposals to reform apprenticeship funding by giving the finance directly to employers. We also pointed out that most small businesses wouldn't have the scale or expertise in-house to run their own apprenticeship programmes. We went on to explain that this is where specialised external training providers such as the BPIF come in, as they can work with the base of an entire industry, and urged that government work with training providers to stimulate increased recruitment of young apprentices. 

We challenged Lord Heseltine's recommendation - subsequently welcomed by the Chancellor - to create a Single Local Growth Fund under which Local Enterprise Partnerships would be able to bid up to £58bn of Government business support funding over four years from 2015. We said concern that such a large-scale devolution of funding to these still-fledgling bodies - particularly in key areas such as skills and innovation - would constitute a return to an approach that has been found wanting when tried in the past.

In addition, we argued the case for further measures to stimulate investment. While we were pleased to see the cap on capital allowances raised to £250K in the Autumn Statement, this is dwarfed by the cost of larger presses and we therefore need to see it raised higher still. At the same time, small companies continue to struggle to obtain bank finance, and customers are increasingly paying late in order to enhance their own cash flow. For these reasons, we stressed the need to tackle late payment and to encourage new lenders to enter the market.

In all, we had a lively and positive exchange that fully used the time available. The parliamentary attendees were attentive, supportive and seemed knowledgeable about the issues raised. Most importantly, they appeared genuinely concerned at the impact of these issues on our industry.