Cable pledges £266m support package in Industrial Strategy update

In a speech to at the University of Warwick, the Business Secretary revealed that five projects had secured £116m of government-industry investment from the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) to strengthen UK supply chains and encourage new suppliers to locate in the UK. This would create and safeguard around 1,500 jobs, he said. The pledge came in a speech outlining progress on the UK's Industrial Strategy, which launched in September 2012. Eleven organisations had successfully bid for government funding from the Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP) to design their own skills training and the construction sector will benefit from up to £150 million of government-industry investment to be delivered by the Technology Strategy Board, Cable said. More young people and teachers will go behind the scenes of the manufacturing industry with the government-industry scheme See Inside Manufacturing (SIM) expanded from three to ten sectors Vince Cable said: "We know manufacturing, training and innovation have all suffered. I hear it time and time again from companies across the UK. That's why our industrial strategy is making the most difference by strengthening manufacturing supply chains, supporting new designs and developing skills. "This support has already helped economic growth. We've secured £1 billion of new capital for our Business Bank, and a further £1.6 billion for the aerospace, automotive and agri-tech sectors. The focus is now on working in partnership with industry to deliver." TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Several decades of 'letting the market rip' have left our economy dangerously unbalanced. The TUC has long-held the view that government needs to take a more active role encouraging growth."