The UK food and drink industry is calling for the sugar tax to be mothballed as manufacturers face a shortage of workers, cost inflation and weak consumer confidence since the Brexit vote.
“The whole thing should be paused,” said Ian Wright, the director general of industry lobby group the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), whose members include the makers of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Tango. “Confidence in the consumer goods market is very fragile and the government has promised not to impose any new burden on industry.”
The food and drink sector, which accounts for 16% of UK manufacturing by turnover, has been rocked by the Brexit vote as the collapse in the value of the pound increases the cost of imported ingredients and a question mark hangs over the status of its large migrant workforce. Of the 400,000 people employed in UK food and drink manufacturing, one in four are from other EU countries.
Wright said the industry needed “cast-iron assurances” from the government that its access to a “flexible workforce, with a wide range of skills and capabilities, as well as a strong work ethic” would continue. Due to the sector’s ageing workforce, it needs to recruit 130,000 new skilled workers by 2024.
Source: www.theguardian.com