探寻制造业投资中风险与回报均衡点

FINDING AN EQUILIBRIUMBETWEEN RISKS AND RETURNS Investment Monitor 2025:Finding an equilibrium betweenrisks and returns in manufacturing investment Contents Executive Summary Introduction4Part 1: Investment Trends in 20255Part 2: Balancing burdens and reliefs: incentivising productive business investment12Part 3: Closing the investment gap with Intellectual Property Power16Part 4: Improving ‘The Big Three’ Tax Reliefs20Conclusion23Recommendations24Viewpoint26About27 ExecutiveSummary Business investment is synonymous with choice. It decides how industries grow,but clear government strategy can shape their evolution. The beginnings ofIntellectual Property (IP) laws paved the way for the industrial revolution and ourbacking of financial technologies has made the UK a world-beating location to scale The manufacturing sector is no stranger to investment, andits investment in growth over time is intimately linked to itscurrent state. Today, UK manufacturing is a powerhouse,accounting for just under 10% of our GDP. But it is notoperating without challenge as it balances short-term needs– such as access to labour or improving liquidity – with long-term goals to digitalise and decarbonise. Our latest Make This has contributed to our subpar performance inproductivity growth since 2008 and has manifested itselfas an uncompetitive business environment – with highenergy costs, limited opportunities to scale innovations, aninadequate plan to develop the next generation of workersand an increasing tax burden. The manufacturing sector Confidence in the wider economy and equipmentmaintenance remain key factors for motivating investment.While the Government cannot directly control what motivatesinvestment, and despite the Treasury being in a difficultposition to generate tax revenue, policy can powerfullyshape the business environment. Our research spotlights the But we need to go further than this too. Long-term targetsare required, such as progressively matching our nationalinvestment intensity to meet the OECD average by 2035,leading to an additional £670 billion of public and private The Industrial Strategy is the perfect start to change thedescription of the UK’s business environment. The practicalinsights shared in this report can support businesses to But why do this? It’s a verifiable fact that the UK under-invests when compared to its peers in the OECD. Introduction The UK manufacturing sector is an industrial titan. The industry contributes over £220billion in gross value added (GVA) annually, supports over 2.6 million jobs directly, andpays a salary that is 8% above the national average. The sector also accounts for 48%of all R&D expenditure, ensuring the UK’s standing as a global leader in innovation This is why investment often features in policy debateand tends to share the stage with our discussions aboutproductivity. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, civilservants have worked tirelessly to ensure the UK is one ofthe best places in the world to start and grow a business –using flexibility in the tax system as its attraction. Investmentis critical to achieving economic growth and key to creating Within this report, manufacturers were surveyed on theirbehaviours towards tax reliefs, to help us understandhow they balance the rising tax burden and the roleexisting reliefs for R&D, capital, and patents play in thedecision-making process. The research also explores the It is clear from our findings that the UK already has a recipefor success, and that marginal adjustments to the existingincentive system could result in disproportionate gains tothe wider economy. However, we must look beyond theshort-term goals too and set responsible targets for the UK– such as making us a top five nation for tax incentives in It’s no secret that the tax burden on businesses is reachinga historic high, with the OBR predicting that we will exceedour post-WWII tax-GDP ratio by 20272. Our national taxburden is already above the OECD average of 34%.Additionally, our national investment intensity has fallenshort of our competitors over the last decade, with the UKinvesting (on average) 17% of its GDP over the last decade, 1Make UK, UK Manufacturing – The Facts, 20252OBR3Make UK calculations for investment intensity (investment as a share of national GDP) for the period 2015-2024 Part 1:Investment trendsin 2025 the transformation in businesses required to deliver the Where is investment heading? The manufacturing business investment environment in2025 can be characterised as one of cautious overallquantity of capital expenditure but with targeted pushes.There has been consistency over recent years in terms ofthe wider basket of investment priorities for manufacturers,but they have competed with each other in response to the This section of the report will lay bare what the investmentpriorities of the sector are for the year ahead, reveal thefactors that are driving these decisions and see where Investment