Business letters: Exporters need more than cash from Osborne

Originally published at The Times

I READ with interest last week’s report on Britain’s diminishing export trade (“Exports take the shine off Osborne’s recovery”). As a Midlands manufacturer generating 90% of revenues from exports, the biggest obstacles we see to reviving the balance of payments are access to funding, poor infrastructure, bureaucracy and the skills gap.

In his budget, the chancellor talked about supporting businesses, but his measures miss the point. For example, the plan to double finance for exporters to £3bn is meaningless if rapidly growing smaller companies cannot access this money. Also, Britain’s transport, communications and power infrastructure lags that of our global competitors.

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