The Effect of the May 2015 Election on the Hose Industry

One of the recurring themes of the current ‘election fever’ that is sweeping the country is that of the spread of choice and the difficulty in predicting the winner.  This is having an unsettling effect on industry as a whole and the Hose Industry is particularly being affected.

“The upcoming UK General Election promises to be the most unpredictable in decades” – this will determine Britain’s energy future thus having a direct impact on British based manufacturing and industry. Chris Lo power-technology.com 18.3.15  “New dynamic entrants like the UK Independence Party (UKIP) on the right and the Green Party on the left begin to mount a credible challenge to the political orthodoxy” – single party Government looks unlikely thus making it hard to call the result.

So what does this mean for the hose industry, well energy and investment are two key issues that the parties are slugging it out over and they have a huge impact.  UN Climate Change talks will take place in Paris shortly and the debate will undoubtedly centre on ‘clean energy’.  All parties will look to promise lowering energy costs but with the pressure mounting to find new sources of energy will this be possible?

In addition the pound could fall further as financial markets react to the closest general election for more than 20 years.  Sterling fell to a 5 year low last week and with lower than expected industrial production in the early part of 2015 a slow-down in the recuperation of the UK economy looks likely.

Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets talks of this period of uncertainty as “political gridlock” with the widening of Britain’s trade deficit with the rest of the world it looks like election time will be a difficult period for British Industry and those in the hose industry will need to dig their heels in and ride out this ‘May’ uncertainty.

Andrew Edwards  Director, Century Hose Limited