Vince Cable talks about the UK car industry
Vince Cable, the business secretary, has issued a very interesting and potentially controversial statement on the state of the UK car industry. While he recognises that the industry as a whole may need assistance in the future he has ruled out any massive subsidies to attract international car manufacturers to the UK. This would appear to be at loggerheads with David Cameron and the previous Labour government which had seemed to indicate a willingness to attract new industry and new companies to the UK.
Vince Cable also talked about a potential "subsidy war" whereby governments around the world would effectively need to "bid up" with tax incentives and government loans to attract car manufacturers to the UK in the future. While no specific mention was made of the electric car industry there is no doubt that this is one area of interest for the UK government and the UK automotive industry.
However, if the UK government is unable or unwilling to accommodate any specific requests from car manufacturers to move their operations to the UK then potentially the UK could miss out on a boom industry. It will be interesting to see how David Cameron and Vince Cable react to future requests for financial help from the car industry and indeed what effect this has on the sector
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