to shortages in factory workers

JACK BARNETT

A SHORTAGE of factory workers is dealing a £6.5bn blow to the UK economy, while London and the South East’s manufacturing economy is outpacing any other in the country, a new report out today has claimed.

In London, 27.3 per cent of taxpayers now come under the 40 or 45 per cent tax bracket

Quarter of taxpayers in London stung by higher income tax rate

JESSICA FRANK-KEYES

A QUARTER of taxpayers in London and the southeast of England now fall within the higher rate of income tax, it has been revealed. Almost 2.5m people in the capital and commuter belt constituencies now come under the 40 or 45 per cent tax bracket, analysis of HMRC data by the Liberal Democrats has shown — more than twice the 1m who were eligible for the 40p tax rate in 1999. In London, 27.3 per cent of taxpayers now pay either 40 or 45 per cent in income tax, while the southeast figure is 22.7 per cent, according to The Telegraph. This compares to 18 per cent across the UK as a whole, the paper says.

Factories are still to fill 74,000 empty roles, representing a big slice of lost output, according to industry body MakeUK and consultancy BDO. It is another sign that the UK’s jobs market is in a period of imbalance, with companies in certain sectors seeking out more workers than are available.

A combination of skills mismatches, Brexit and an exodus of workers from the labour force due to long-term sickness have been blamed for engineering shortages. Despite those issues, manufacturing jobs across the UK are on the up, which MakeUK and BDO said disproves the “the longheld narrative of inevitable decline in manufacturing employment”. Six out of eight English regions saw their factory workforce expand last year.