If a week is a long time in politics then the last couple of months have felt like a lifetime. At the time of writing in week seven of the lockdown it’s clear that for Britain’s manufacturers it’s going to be a long way back towards anything like normality, whatever that new normality will be. At the start of May Make UK published it’s first COVID 19 Monitor showing that industry had experienced a collapse in demand as the impact of the global lockdown due to coronavirus hammers home with a warning that conditions are unlikely to return to anywhere near normal for some time.

At 11pm on Friday 31 January, three and a half years after the Brexit referendum, the UK formally withdrew from the European Union. Flags were lowered and the UK’s representatives in Brussels withdrew from the European institutions and packed their bags. But apart from these highly symbolic changes, what else will be different and, most importantly for manufacturers, what does this mean for trade between the UK and the EU?

With an alarming backdrop of ever-increasing skills shortages, rapid technological change and an ageing workforce, manufacturers are investing more than ever before in their employees’ health and wellbeing. Counselling, health-screening and mental health first aiders are the norm in factories across the UK with modern and flexible working opportunities sitting at the heart of British industry.

For a minute, let’s challenge the idea that for business to do anything positive on environmental sustainability, regulation is the answer. In our latest report, Manufacturing: stepping up to the sustainability challenge, we found that manufacturers of all types and sizes are making inroads into sustainable business practice, not just because of regulation but for a variety of reasons. Cost saving is clearly a major benefit, with nearly 80% of respondents to our survey stating that this was the main driver for making an environmentally positive change to their business.

The United Kingdom has a long history of manufacturing. The Industrial Revolution which marked a major turning point in global development began in this country. Almost every aspect of modern life was influenced in some way by the birth of modern business, born in the British manufacturing sector.