Lord Mandelson’s Rabbit
Published : October 02, 2009
Cabinet Ministers always like to pull a rabbit out of their hats during their Party Conference speeches. It makes them feel like they are in charge and gives them something to impress the party faithful with. Usually on further inspection it transpires that the policy/rabbit had already been announced or that it is an unfunded aspiration. However in the case of Peter Mandelson’s bravura speech to the Labour Party Conference this week the ‘rabbit’, an extension of the car scrappage scheme, was real.
The car scrappage scheme has been the one unqualified success story of the Government’s support package for business in this recession. In fact it has been so successful that the £300m allocated to fund it is about to run out. By extending the scheme with another £100m Mandelson has hopefully helped to prolong the bounce that the previously dormant automotive sector is experiencing.
The MTA, along with others in the manufacturing sector, had been pressing for an extension. A number of members had reported recent upturns in the automotive sector believed to be a result of the scheme so, as part of the Manufacturing Alliance we sent a joint letter to Lord Mandelson and the Chancellor as recently as last week. In fact by the time the BBC covered the campaign in this article, which mentions the MTA, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8278012.stm Lord Mandelson was only hours away from announcing its success.
Of course there is a risk that in doing something like this the Government is tempted to say that it is covering off all of the concerns of manufacturing. To be fair to him Lord Mandelson did not do so in his speech, which went down a storm in the Hall. Much of what he said, including phrases like “Less financial engineering and a lot more real engineering” would have been music to the ears of manufacturers – now the challenge is to make sure that the warm words and supportive tone are backed up with solid policies and help for investment.
Contact
Paul O'Donnell
Email : podonnell@mta.org.uk
Telephone : 020 7298 6409
