“It’s important that we make sure that every pound we spend as a government is well spent,” he told delegates at the EEF Manufacturing Conference 2016. “When we looked at MAS we saw that in some cases that money was going to third parties such as advisors and not really making a difference on the ground.”
The government subsequently decided to re-distribute the money through local “growth hubs”.
“It’s a way of changing the way things are done and working much more closely with the end companies, but the support is still there,” he added.
Earlier in his speech, Javid rejected criticism that manufacturing in Britain is in decline and that “we don’t build anything any more”.
“When I look at manufacturing I don’t see failure, I see people who are creating jobs and who are creating growth,” he said. “While there was decline in industry in the first decade of this century, in the past six years manufacturing output is up, exports are up and jobs are up.”
