I note that this Early Day Motion has just been tabled:
That seems worthy of much wider support.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Yes, page 74 of the 2015 Conservative party manifesto promised to:
“safeguard British interests in the single market”
see
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf
There is at least as much of a democratic mandate to stay in the single market as there is to leave the EU.
Which is interesting in terms of what the Lords can do
I note the Independent is running an item about a manufacturing company Smiffy’s that cannot wait on the Brexit process to be settled it is moving its head-quarters to the Netherlands. One of many British companies needing to take action now because of the May Brexit farce. Ironically making fancy dress outfits aptly sums up the UKIP coup that took place in the Tory Party as May pursues a decidely “totalitarian” approach to Britain’s economic future. The Empress has New Clothes!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-smiffys-business-moves-leaves-uk-europe-hq-exodus-a7371956.html
I am currently going through a procurement process in support of my housing development work.
Firstly, it is apparent that lots of the companies we have been interviewing take on foreign workers because there is a skills shortage in certain areas of the economy within the UK based workforce.
Secondly, most companies are not investing in jobs at the moment because of fears over the long term impact of BREXIT.
We are hearing that work slowed down before the vote and then sped up again just after and it has been a bumpy ride since. Our procurement process was heavily over subscribed.
Thanks
You’re welcome.
To quantify that for you I have interviewed 10 contractors so far for our framework.
Only two said that they were taking on new permanent staff. Only one was committed to an apprentice scheme with the rest using a mix of graduate schemes and freelance to deal with variations in demand. There is now also a lot of multi-skilling – especially in the smaller orgs – but remember this is fewer people doing more work – not more workers doing more work.
The sort of companies we are working with are from 4 person operations to those who employ 1400 people nationally in the built environment discipline (from architects to ecologists).
The smaller companies have told us that things have been really tough and that the pricing of work now is ultra competitive.
And I’m afraid my organisation is contributing to that price reduction too. But we have to. The HCA will now be stopping co-funding our new homes (works out at around £15-18K subsidy per property for us which helps make the debt to build more manageable); the last Chancellor made us reduce our rents by 1% for 3 years and this reduces the income to build (remember now that the HRA income belongs to the landlord and no longer goes back to the Treasury to be divided up and re-allocated nationally like it used to). And our income is under constant threat from the bedroom tax and (more long term) the benefit cap (our Head of Finance as aged before my eyes during this last 6 years.
Some might call this ‘efficiency’. I just see it at as how wealth actually gets stripped out of an economy and away from hard-working highly skilled and experienced people. The part I have to play in that makes me sad.
None of those we interviewed could understand the flurry of activity after the BREXIT vote.
Those with foreign workers are worried that they will be forced to lose competent staff that will put them at a competitive disadvantage. There seems to be lot of Spanish surveyors in the UK at the moment! And I can tell you good ones are worth their weight in gold. We certainly try to keep hold of ours.
I feel for all of contractors really – they all seem to be well ran and resourced organisations that look after their staff, pay decent wages, provide decent conditions, play by the rules (H&S, environmental policies, equalities policies) yet this Government seems to refuse to invest its money in the country and generate more work for them in the name of ideological stupidity.
It’s shameful.