Gap widening between investment ambition and reality

According to a new survey conducted among manufacturing organisations by EEF, nine out of ten firms want to invest to improve productivity, three-quarters to adopt new technology and seven in ten to develop capacity to manufacture new products. The resulting EEF report – Invest for Growth – says firms have been upping their capital expenditure with half of companies increasing investment in modern machinery, skills, R&D, marketing and innovation over the last three years and only one in ten reducing it. The trends are not, however, enough to make up for a decade of declining investment, says EEF, with the recovery in business investment being slower than Britain's international competitors. EEF chief executive Terry Scuoler said, "Manufacturers are telling us they have ambitious strategies for growth but many are also saying they are not investing enough to deliver them. We need to close this gap between ambition and reality by overcoming the barriers to investment facing manufacturers and by giving them every reason to invest here rather than abroad."