Mandelson unveils car industry rescue package
- 00:02:12
- ITN
Mandelson unveils car industry rescue package
Britain's struggling car industry has joined banks in getting Government help but Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has denied the package is a "bail-out". Lord Mandelson has unveiled the details of the plan in the House of Lords. He said measures to support the auto industry would include guarantees to unlock loans of up to £1.3 billion from the European Investment Bank and a further £1 billion is to fund investment into green-friendly vehicles. Lord Mandelson said he was inviting regional development agencies and the Technology Strategy Board to research and develop programmes into cleaner engines, lighter cars and "plug-in hybrids". He also said that he had tasked new trade and investment minister Mervyn Davies to draw up plans for improving access of the car companies' financing arms to additional funding. The Business Secretary said that the measures would provide the industry with a "significant boost" while helping to make Britain "a world leader in the development and manufacture of low carbon vehicles". He said the sector was "vital to the strength of manufacturing in Britain" and action was needed "to prevent an irreversible loss of capacity, skills and technology". "This industry is not a lame duck and this is not a bail-out", Lord Mandelson said. For the Tories, Lord Hunt of Wirral said the package was too little, too late and told peers "after years of persecuting the motorist, ministers now offer a range of placebos to an industry facing the worst crisis it has ever faced".
ITN | January 27, 2009
