BMF Responds to the Budget

“Yesterday’s budget brings some encouraging news to many of our members and marks the Government’s continued recognition of the importance of businesses like those in our industry.

“Two of the measures most encouraging for the marine industry are the earmarking of £100 million of the Business Finance Partnership to reach smaller businesses through non-traditional channels and the incentivising of lenders to lend more to smaller businesses under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme. We have been working with the British Bankers’ Association to increase the financial industry’s understanding of the leisure marine sector and its potential to deliver economic growth.  We are pleased to see the Government respond in this way.

“The Government’s commitment to supporting high export businesses and those looking to expand into this market is incredibly welcome. Our members have some of the most impressive export ratios, with some of them exporting over 80% of production, which make up a considerable part of the UK leisure, superyacht and small commercial marine industry’s £3 billion contribution to the UK economy.  The proposals to expand the overseas role of UK Export Finance and help businesses secure new opportunities hold the potential to be a significant boost to our members and UK plc as a whole.  We already work closely with UKTI through our meet the buyer scheme at the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show, introducing our members to export opportunities and we look forward to using our experience to support the Government with this new initiative.

“We are also pleased that Government has confirmed the recently publicised change to legislation and that from 1 April 2012 the use of red diesel to propel private pleasure craft will continue to be allowed.  It has also published the wording of the declaration that boat users will make at the time of purchase, which is reflective of the ongoing hard work by the BMF, RYA and IWA and is good news for our members.

“It has been a challenging landscape for businesses across the country in recent years, with access to finance being one of the biggest obstacles. It of course remains to be seen how smoothly and to what extent these measures will be implemented, but if done properly they could help deliver the well-deserved support our members and other businesses across the country need to continue to deliver economic growth.”