Peter
Mandelson's speech at Cumbria Economic Forum on how Britain
fights back
DEPARTMENT FOR
BUSINESS, ENTERPRISE AND REGULATORY REFORM News Release (PN 2009-32)
issued by COI News Distribution Service. 20 February 2009
Today's
speech to be delivered at the Cumbria Economic Forum at 1400 will
address how Britain fights back, and how we put in place the
bridges to our economic future. He will focus on the economic
opportunities of a low carbon future.
Embargoed until 1400hrs 20 February 2009
Check against delivery
Cumbria Economic Summit
20 February 2009
[I don't really want to give - and I'm sure you
don't want to sit through - another battling the recession
speech]. It is as clear here as anywhere that we face a tough
year, a tough climb out of the downturn, a tough mix of resilience
and application and commitment and - ultimately - patience from
both business and government. There is no overnight cure - not
least because the crisis in credit and demand that we are facing
is a global one.
We've taken action to stabilise the banking system and
preserve the flow of credit in the economy. Today I can announce
that just in the five weeks since the launch of the Enterprise
Finance Guarantee over 400 Government-backed bank loans to SMEs
have been offered. That's more than a million pounds a day.
And more than a billion pounds still available for viable small
businesses in trouble.
Under the HMRC flexibilities the government has created, 60,000
businesses have deferred more than a billion pounds in tax or VAT
obligations to keep money in their cash flow now.
30,000 businesses have had a free health check through
Businesslink to help them assess their strategies for weathering
the downturn. More than 2000 companies, for example, from the
North West have used this service. This is what people expect from
government - real help now.
Along with regional agencies and local government, we're
also bringing forward billions of pounds worth of infrastructure
spending across the UK to help keep people and firms in work while
private demand falls.
Here in the North West we've drawn down priority projects
such as the Carlisle Northern Development Route and New Squares
Development in Penrith - both projects that will reshape and renew
the region's economic potential.
The edge of a new industrial revolution
We are taking action to speed recovery, but not simply to turn
the economy back to what it was. Today I want to talk about the
future - how Britain fights back. How we put in place the bridges
to our economic future. How we use the recession to ask some
fundamental questions about how we will make our living in the
global economy of the twenty first century.
We're on the edge of a new low carbon industrial revolution.
It doesn't matter if you're making industrial
composites. Or running a small business in Keswick and keeping an
eye on your energy costs. Or managing venture capital or carbon
trading in the City of London. The shift to low-carbon
technologies and production will transform how we live and work.
In the first week of March at a Low Carbon summit in London the
Government will begin to set out a national vision for the
transition to low carbon. Not just as an environmental and
economic imperative. But as a huge economic opportunity for the UK.
An opportunity in two ways. First, the shift to low carbon offers
billion of pounds of cost savings to businesses and the public
sector in the form of energy and resource efficiency. The initial
cost of the transition to energy efficiency pays for itself
quickly and many times over.
Second, as the global economy as a whole moves to low carbon, we
will be in a position to supply a global industry. We are already
one of the world's most competitive producers of low carbon
technologies and services.
But as this market goes mainstream, as we move from prototypes to
product lines and other countries intensify their investment in
their own low carbon strengths those competitive advantages will
be tested in an entirely new way.
There were many explanations for Britain's head start in the
first industrial revolution. Our financial system, our dense
population, our openness to trade, our natural resources. This
time around, our headstart is not unique to Britain.
This means we need to think over more clearly about the UK's
low carbon competitiveness. We need a strategic lead and vision
from government that commits this country to change and in doing
so sets the right frameworks for the private sector and uses
public investment strategically. This is a prime example of the
"new industrial activism" I am advocating.
We need to take the big decisions about the UK's energy and
transport infrastructure so that they are ready for the shift to
renewables, nuclear and new forms of transport.
Critically we in government need to see the way in which these
decisions will interact, what they will mean for low carbon demand
and supply in the UK. And what they can and should mean for
industry in the UK. We will gain less if the low carbon demand we
are generating fails to be supplied adequately from British
sources and manufacturing.
We have committed to a shift to low carbon as a country and an
economy and have regulated to make it happen.
We are not alone. All the countries of Europe have committed to
both reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% and generate
20% of energy from renewables by 2020.
This will create demand for low carbon goods and services in
Britain. But what more do we need to do to ensure that British
companies are equipped to compete to supply that demand?
British homes and businesses and the entire public sector will
need to make a rapid shift to energy and resource efficiency. What
do we need to do to ensure that UK firms have the skills to advise
on and carry out this change?
We will be actively supporting British motorists in making the
shift to low carbon vehicles - along with a hundred million
drivers in China and India. What more can we do to ensure that the
UK vehicle industry is capable of meeting this demand, both for
vehicles and their components? How do we make the UK the best
place in the world to demonstrate, develop and manufacture low
carbon transport?
As the UK shifts over to civil nuclear power, carbon capture and
renewable energy, we need to ask what more we can do to strengthen
the UK's ability to build the companies that will compete for
the supply chain work that will support these industries.
Other countries have approached the low carbon issue as a fiscal
stimulus question - a green job creation scheme. And it is true
that a shift to low carbon will be invaluable in creating tens of
thousands of jobs now, especially in construction and manufacturing.
But I believe it is much wider and more fundamental than that. It
goes to the heart of our long term industrial future. We have to
own that future. The Low Carbon Industrial Strategy that Ed
Miliband and I will be consulting on from the beginning of next
month will support how we do that.
The green future in Cumbria
As I have said many times before, I firmly believe that we will
drive this green industrial revolution from the regions.
That's why today's launch of Cumbria's revised
Economic strategy and Sub-Regional Action Plan is so important.
What we are seeing here is a maket-leader for the country as a whole.
Everyone recognises that driving Cumbria's low carbon future
will take a combination of building on existing strengths and
attracting new investment - probably from abroad. But you are
starting from a good base.
There are over 5,000 companies now operating in the low carbon
and environmental sector in the North West, as a whole, employing
around 86,000 people.
Inevitably civil nuclear power is at the heart of this picture.
It was recently confirmed that Sellafield will be nominated as a
potential site for new nuclear build. We need to use this, and
the decommissioning and cleanup work for the existing facilities,
as a catalyst for making the region a base from which companies
can develop expertise in civil nuclear management - and win
contracts throughout the UK and around the world.
The new National Nuclear Laboratory must aim to be a centre of
global excellence in nuclear research and development, spinning
off commercial research work and drawing on the proximity of
companies like BAe - whose skills and expertise makes them an
important potential player in the civil nuclear power supply chain.
But your focus isn't just nuclear. Renewables projects like
the Solway Energy gateway could exploit the region's other
big energy resource - at least until they work out how to generate
energy from rain! The concept of an energy coast is more than
just a metaphor.
I recognise that these are huge challenges. The future of
Sellafield is still a moving picture. We need to ensure that we
are presenting major international investors with a regional offer
that is coherent and compelling. We need to make sure Britain has
the energy infrastructure it needs to adapt to both greater use of
nuclear power and renewable energy, wherever it's generated.
We will aim to address and answer all of these challenges in our
low carbon industrial strategy. And we want to work closely with
this region and others in making that happen.
Since 2006, the North West has been taking ambitious action to
tackle climate change and secure its own low-carbon future. And
Cumbria has a powerful potential role to play, through its energy
supply and its industrial base, in realising that ambition.
If you rise to the challenge of a single regional vision for a
low carbon industrial future, we will back you in securing extra
resources, and support any effort to leverage investment in the
region.
A model for this is the decision to create a West Cumbria Vision
Board where all local interests have agreed to work together on
economic development. Anything we do will support the Board's
work, not sideline it.
Conclusion: Britain fights back
Some might argue that the current uncertainty of recession makes
this the wrong time to focus so intensely on the future. I
disagree. A recession is partly a reflection of how we see the
future. As well as helping families and firms through the
downturn, it is the duty of government to set out a map of our
economic future that reassures and inspires. Turning the clock
back is not an option. In fighting back against the current
banking crisis, Britain needs to re-shape and re-balance our
economy in the future.
There has been a lot of talking Britain down lately, and not only
from coffee shop owners. I understand the severity of our
economic circumstances as well as anyone, believe me. But as of
today, I'm going to take on the doomsters and only talk
Britain up. I do not under estimate the economic difficulties we
face in this country. But the UK's open and dynamic economy
is a huge asset. We have some of the best growing small firms in
the world and some of the smartest and most skilled workers. Our
regulatory environment is efficient and business friendly.
We have a resilience and a capacity for renewal that is not just
an asset, it is the pre-requisite for success in a rapidly
changing global economy.
This is precisely the time to apply those qualities both in
business and in government to the single biggest industrial
challenge of the next decade. It is vital that the UK offers the
conditions that make the UK the best country in the world to
develop and grow low carbon businesses. We need to make the UK a
leader in low carbon innovation and research, just as we are
demonstrating our capability in digital, creative, bioscience and
advanced manufacturing industries.
We have to create an active industrial policy that supports
British firms and the British workforce in developing their
capacity to compete for and build these industries. A new
industrial activism for a new green industrial revolution.
Cumbria is a place of extraordinary beauty with enormous
potential for the future. Up here they say "I shall lift mine
eyes unto the hills". We all know there's a tough road
ahead. But I strongly believe that this is the moment to lift our
eyes to the future. Britain can and will fight its way back.
ENDS