Cable pledges to kick-start growth

British Glass in Sheffield, WT Johnson and Sons in Huddersfield, and Fabricom in Immingham will all receive funding to set up training centres and offer new apprenticeships through the Coalition’s “Employer Ownership Scheme”.

The programme is part of a Government drive to boost the economy which saw major announcements on planning and infrastructure policy earlier this week.

The latest announcements are designed to give successful firms control over skills training which has previously been left in the hands of the public sector.

Yesterday Business Secretary Vince Cable also revealed embryonic plans for the creation of a Government-backed bank to increase lending to small business.

Mr Cable said the scale of the new bank, and the exact way in which it would work, were still being thrashed out – but insisted the project will move forward later this year.

“We are looking at the potential for a Government-backed institution,” he said in a major speech outlining his long-term industrial strategy. “It’s currently in gestation.”

The new institution is intended to give the economy a much-needed boost by improving the availability of finance for small firms that wish to expand.

Further details about the bank are set to be announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s forthcoming Autumn Statement – now scheduled for December 5 – but the institution is likely to work through non-bank lenders and so-called “challenger banks” outside of the big five high street institutions.

Mr Cable said the Government’s industrial strategy would give companies the “certainty” they need for long-term development.

This will include strategies to support sectors in which Britain is felt to have a competitive advantage – aerospace, automotive and life sciences; higher and further education and professional and business services; and the information economy, construction and energy.

“Government makes decisions every day that affect the British economy, but has for too long done this in an ad hoc way,” he said.

“Government needs to be more like business, by making 
strategic plans and sticking to them.

“Our first part of that plan is lifting the barrier that poor access to finance puts on growth, by helping firms to invest capital, businesses expand, and create jobs.

“But I am also setting out a clear and ambitious vision, a commitment far beyond the usual political timescale that will continue to bear fruit decades later.

“It will give our businesses certainty, allow them to make their own plans, and know that the full weight of Government is behind them.”

The move was warmly welcomed by business leaders and unions alike, although some reserved judgement until further details are announced,

But shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said: “Vince Cable has given 15 speeches on industrial strategy since coming to office, yet across different sectors the Government has been acting in a deeply un-strategic way - creating chaos and confusion in industries from defence to renewables and transport.

“Ministers need to come clean on whether they are proposing a proper British Investment Bank, which Ed Miliband has led calls for since last year, or merely a rebranding exercise of schemes which already exist and are not doing enough to help business.”