British manufacturers expect output to fall by 3.2 percent next year after a 4.4 percent decline in 2022, as they are hit by rising raw material prices and higher borrowing costs and falling consumer demand, a trade body said on Monday.

"There is simply no sugar-coating the outlook for next year and possibly beyond," said Stephen Phipson, chief executive of Make UK. "These are remarkably challenging times which are testing even the best and most successful of companies to the limit."

Make UK, which says it represents 20,000 companies ranging in size from start-ups to multinationals, welcomed recent government support for energy costs. The measures include 18 billion pounds ($22 billion) of energy bill subsidies for businesses across the economy as a whole. However, the group warned that more might be needed soon.

"The bigger issue is that the UK risks sleepwalking into an acceptance that little or no growth is the norm. Government needs to work with industry as a matter of urgency to deliver a long-term industrial strategy," Phipson said.

The UK's manufacturing output in September was 5.8 percent lower than a year earlier, according to the most recent official data.

Make UK said the scale of the fall in output that it estimated for 2022 partly reflected an unusually strong performance in 2021 when demand bounced back after the pandemic.

(Source: Reuters with edits)