All-Party Parliamentary Furniture Industry Group Meetings
On 13 July 2021, the All-Party Parliamentary Furniture Industry Group (APPFIG) met to discuss the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the furniture industry and a range of emerging problems the sector was facing including steel and foam shortages, and challenges in recruiting staff.
Following the meeting, the MPs present took away a range of actions to follow up with Ministers by writing and asking parliamentary questions.
The APPFIG is due to meet on 20 October 2021 to discuss the latest developments and what further action the Government can take to support the furniture industry. The meeting will be led by Mike Wood MP, Chair of the APPFIG, and will be attended by other parliamentarians, including Vice-Chair of the APPFIG Mark Eastwood MP.
Response to DEFRA Consultation on Waste Prevention
On 4 June 2021, the BFC submitted a response to theDepartment for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consultation on its new waste prevention plan for England. In this response, the BFC cautioned the Government on the unintended consequences of treating the furniture industry as a single, homogenous sector in its plans to consult on an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for furniture by the end of 2025.
A press release on the BFC’s response to DEFRA’s consultation, BFC Urges Government ‘One Size Does Not Fit All’ in EPR Plan for Furniture, was published on 18 June 2021.
Tradeshow Access Programme
The APPFIG has highlighted difficulties arising from the cancellation of the Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) and the importance of a replacement of this programme. This was raised at the APPFIG meeting on 13 July 2021. We are expecting DIT to announce a replacement to TAP in the near future.
Letter to BEIS Minister on Shipping Costs
During the BFC Executive meeting of 14 June 2021, members of the BFC raised their concerns surrounding the increasing cost of shipping. The BFC wrote to Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Paul Scully MP, on 21 June 2021 to highlight the issues that increasing shipping costs pose to the furniture industry and consumers.
The BFC received a response from Minister Scully on 21 July 2021 that stated that the Government has ensured that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has significant powers to investigate and act if it finds that businesses are behaving anti-competitively in a market. Minister Scully added that the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which it considers most appropriate. He also stated that concerns about potentially anticompetitive conduct can be reported to the CMA directly.
Letter to BEIS on Staffing Challenges
The BFC and APPFIG have raised their concerns surrounding furniture companies struggling to recruit new staff and meet demand. On 26 August 2021, the BFC forwarded a letter from Whitemeadow, detailing their experience of staffing challenges in the furniture industry, to two senior civil servants at BEIS. The BFC has expressed that Whitemeadow is just one example of the many furniture companies experiencing staffing challenges and has appealed to BEIS for the skills the furniture industry needs to be given priority status for immigrant passage to the UK.
BEIS has encouraged the BFC to continue supplying examples of labour shortages in the furniture industry.
The BFC is presently collating examples of companies experiencing furniture industry skills shortages to be shared at the next meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Furniture Industry Group on 20 October 2021.
Member Surveys
The BFC has prepared draft questions for an upcoming cross-sector member survey. BFC member association, FIRA, has recently published a survey focussing on raw materials for the furniture industry.
Recent surveys have helped to inform what priorities the BFC needs to impart when speaking to Ministers, Members of Parliament, and other key stakeholders. As BFC trade associations continue to consult their members on a regular basis it is important that businesses take the opportunity to raise issues that face their businesses.
Ongoing meetings with Paul Scully MP, Minister for Small Businesses, Consumers and Labour Markets
The BFC engages with Paul Scully MP and his team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on a regular basis. In the calls, Jonathan Hindle continues to raise issues of concern to the furniture industry including the ongoing raw material supply challenges, shipping costs, staff shortages and the implications of the Brexit deal.
Ongoing engagement with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The BFC has continued to liaise with Civil Servants in BEIS to ensure that the concerns and issues facing the industry are brought to the immediate attention of ministers. The BFC has raised concerns with civil servants about driver shortages and ensuring that skills and training to support British Manufacturing are at the forefront of Government thinking.