Are you in or are you out? "We are more than capable of creating our own red tape," says manufacturer

Edward Naylor is chief executive of Barnsley-based Naylor Industries, a manufacturer of building and construction supplies. 

It employs over 220 people at factories in South and West Yorkshire, Fife and the West Midlands, and generates a turnover in excess of £30m. Its products have been used on every continent and in 49 different countries.

Are you in or are you out? In

Why? I have not yet heard compelling reason to leave.

If you’re part of a continent of 300m people then you are in a better place to negotiate with countries like the United States. The fact that we have 65m people in Great Britain is dwarfed by the sheer weight of numbers in the EU. You have more clout in the world and as regards trade agreements if you’re part of a block of countries

Issues around regulation are largely nonsense. We as a country are more than capable enough of making our own red tape, a lot of it is self inflicted anyway and imposed by the UK for the UK rather than Europe

People think that all of a sudden the world will be a tape free environment, it’s nonsense.

We will end up with our own British red tape, which is no better than what we’re having to comply with.

Basically, we should stick with what works.

What would a Brexit mean for your business?

Trading within Europe is easy. We buy machinery and raw materials from EU nations and sell into EU nations – it’s all simple and straightforward right now. We are nervous of that big unknown, nobody’s quite sure what it will look like, a Britain outside the EU. It is a case of better the devil you know.

With our products, any standards and rules that the EU could impose, we comply with already

The EU nations remain a significant market, and it’s about being part of a club – the responsibility passes to people at the centre of the club and that’s fair.