South: Booming UK automotive industry urges government to address Brexit risks

Against the background of new figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showing a record turnover of £71.6 billion in the automotive industry in 2015, with jobs up by 17,000 and 814,000 people employed, Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “Any risks and uncertainty to these fundamental benefits need to be addressed head on by Government.”

The industry turnover was up 7.3% on 2014; vehicle production was up 5.2% to 1.7 million units while environmental impact was reduced with waste to landfill down 24.2%; and the average new car CO2 emissions was down by a third since 2000, falling 2.6% in 2015. The additional value generated by the industry for the UK economy in 2015 was some £18.9b, a 3.8% rise on the previous year. Investment in R&D by the industry also reached a record high of £2.5bin 2015, which now represents some 12% of the country’s total R&D spend. Demand for both cars and commercial vehicles in the UK reached record levels with 2,633,503 million and 420,000 registrations respectively.

Access to the single market, EU-negotiated international trade deals, and the ability to recruit talent internationally and influence new standards all helped make the UK automotive industry one of the world’s most competitive, attracting billions of pounds in investment in recent years.

Hawes added: “Our growth depends on certainty and continued open and reciprocal access to the 100-plus markets with which the UK automotive industry so successfully trades. This is not just a matter of finished cars but also of components, technologies and the wider automotive value chain.”

The indication that supply-chain members plan to invest £225 million in new jobs, machinery and new-product development in the next three years, underscores how crucial it is that the state of economic stability continues at a time when the sector is so well placed to meet increasingly stringent environmental targets, and to take advantage of opportunities from emerging alternative-fuel and connected and autonomous-vehicle technologies.

Among the additional positive developments emphasised in the new report is the way that preserving and reusing valuable natural resources has become a major priority for the automotive industry. More than a third of all companies participating in the Sustainability Report now send no waste at all to landfill. Moreover, in February 2016, SMMT launched a free recycling “take-back” service to ensure that owners of cars whose parent brand no longer operates in the UK can have their vehicles collected and recycled free of charge at the end of their usefulness.

Equally impressive was the heavy investment in developing the workforce of the future. With an estimated 5,000 vacancies across the industry currently unfilled due to a shortage of available skills, report signatories reported an intake of 825 new apprentices in 2015, up from around 500 the previous year, while each employee across the sector received an average 2.9 days of training – a rise of 5.3%.

Motorists too are doing their bit to add to the positive picture in the automotive industry. The UK’s vehicle service and repair sector was revealed as one of the most competitive in Europe, with British motorists spending £21.1 billion every year looking after their cars – 12% more than the global average – as they ensure their vehicles remain safe, efficient and in fine fettle.