Deputy Prime Minister unveils £100 million Rolls-Royce factory
5 Jun 2014 02:39 PM
£100 million
Rolls-Royce aerospace factory opened today (5 June 2014) by Deputy Prime
Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince
Cable.
£45 million for
development of next-generation engines announced.
A new £100 million
Rolls-Royce aerospace factory will be officially opened today (5 June 2014) by
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince
Cable.
The facility will make more than
2,500 fan and turbine discs a year – essential parts of a plane’s
engine, which will power aircraft made by Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier. The
new factory will also make discs for the world’s fastest-selling and most
efficient civil aircraft engine – the Trent XWB, which goes into
Airbus’ A350 XWB.
The new facility in Washington,
Tyne and Wear, will safeguard hundreds of highly-skilled manufacturing jobs in
the North East, providing economic security for the future and ensuring this
highly advanced work does not go to overseas competitors.
During the visit, Nick Clegg and
Vince Cable will also announce £45 million joint government and industry
funding for 3 projects led by Rolls-Royce through the Aerospace Technology
Institute to develop new technology for low-carbon aircraft
engines.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
said:
We should be really proud that
the UK is the number one aerospace industry in Europe and a world leader in
innovation.
The highly skilled workers at
the new Rolls-Royce factory are leading the charge for innovative technologies
that are made in Britain. And the government’s investment of £45
million alongside industry will help to ensure the UK continues to build and
design the planes of the future.
I am working hard in the
Coalition to ensure that aerospace continues to boost growth in the North East
and across the country, building a stronger economy and doing it
fairly.
Business Secretary Vince Cable
said:
The UK is at the forefront of
the global aerospace industry, and investments such as this new factory from
Rolls-Royce will help to keep us there. The projects that we are funding
through our aerospace industrial
strategy will ensure that Britain develops the efficient and
environmentally friendly aircraft of the future, while keeping highly-skilled
manufacturing jobs here in Britain.
The £45 million funding
will be used for research and development to reduce carbon emissions by using
lightweight composite materials to make Rolls-Royce engines. Research will also
focus on changing parts of the engine design to make engines more efficient and
reducing the time it takes to manufacture them.
The research will be carried out
by a number of partners from across the UK including the University of
Birmingham, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield, the
Advanced Forming Research Centre in Glasgow, the Manufacturing Technology
Centre in Coventry, and the Universities of Nottingham, Oxford and
Sheffield.
This investment is a key part of
the aerospace industrial
strategy, jointly developed by industry and government through the
Aerospace Growth Partnership, which provides a single, national focus for
technology research and facilities in the sector. £2 billion funding has
been provided by government and industry to support the
strategy.
Gary Elliott, CEO of
the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) said:
Today we are launching 3
research projects led by Rolls-Royce that will help the UK develop more
efficient, technologically sophisticated aircraft engines. These new
technologies are vital to reducing emissions and underline the aerospace
industry’s commitment to improving the environment. These are exactly the
types of projects the aerospace industrial strategy and the Aerospace
Technology Institute were set up to deliver.
The UK is the number one
aerospace industry in Europe and second only to the United States globally.
Aerospace is one of the industries driving the UK’s economic recovery,
contributing £24 billion to the economy every year, through 3,000
companies and supporting 230,000 jobs across the country. Three quarters of the
UK industry’s products are exported.
The ATI, opened by Business
Minister Michael Fallon in April 2014, will oversee the £2 billion joint
government and industry investment provided through the industrial strategy,
and has provided funding for the projects led by Rolls-Royce. Improvements
enabled by the ATI are expected to lead to a reduction in CO2
emissions of more than 100 million tonnes each year from next generation
aircraft - equivalent to taking 20 million cars off the road around the
world.
Notes to
editors
- ‘Lifting Off’
is the government’s Industrial Strategy for
aerospace.
- Rolls-Royce is an active
participant of the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) – this brings
business and government together to tackle barriers to growth, boost exports
and grow the number of high value jobs in the UK. In March 2013,
the AGP issued an Aerospace Industrial Strategy. At the heart of the
strategy was a commitment by government and industry to create an Aerospace
Technology Institute (ATI), supported with a funding commitment of just over
£1 billion by government over 7 years to 2020 (through to the end of the
next Parliament), matched by industry to create a £2 billion total
commitment. This provides stable funding for a strategic, long-term research
and technology programme in the UK.
- The government’s long-term
plan is to build a strong, more competitive economy and a fairer society.
Industrial
Strategy gives impetus to the plan for growth by providing businesses,
investors and the public with clarity about the long-term direction in which
the government wants the economy to travel.
The first achievements and future priorities of the industrial strategy
have been published and can be found herehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strategy-early-succ
esses-and-future-priorities.