Helping businesses make sense of the Budget

Northumbria University’s Marketing, Operations and Systems department within the faculty of Business and Law has held a knowledge exchange breakfast event in collaboration with its strategic partners the Advanced Manufacturing Forum (AMF) and Open North Foundation (ONF) to help North East businesses understand the impact of the spring Budget.

Expert speakers from organisations including the Bank of England, Azets Accountancy & Business Advice, and Schroders, gave a series of presentations and took questions from AMF and ONF members. Promoted as the Bacon and Egg-onomics breakfast briefing, topics covered rising energy costs and interest rates, tax changes, skills shortages alongside national and global economic growth forecasts.    

A community of industry experts, the AMF brings together the North-East of England manufacturing and engineering sector to engage with members and partners within the wider business community. A key remit of the AMF is to exchange ideas and knowledge to generate business growth, share opportunities and to champion advanced manufacturing in the UK. Members can also work closely with Newcastle Business School academics and gain insight into valuable business-focused research.

AMF Chair Richard Swart commented: “As one of the leading manufacturing and engineering membership organisations in the North East, we run a number of briefing events in partnership with Newcastle Business School, and the feedback is always extremely positive. Whether our members are looking to invest, recruit, raise productivity, or drive down costs, the economic landscape remains uncertain at best - so hearing from banking, business and accountancy experts on what the latest Budget can mean for them is highly beneficial. I am grateful to all our speakers for offering their expertise and knowledge.”

Dr Adrian Small, Associate Professor of Operations Management at Newcastle Business School, added: “By collaborating with the AMF and its members, through our high-quality research and knowledge exchange programmes, we hope to find solutions to the many challenges faced by North East manufacturers. It’s about working closely with businesses so that our research is relevant to them and can have genuine and positive impact. Engaging through events like this breakfast briefing is an ideal way to start this process.”