Mandelson told: 'We need action not words'
Mar 3 2009 By Alun Thorne
Lord Mandelson has been accused of dithering while the region’s carmaking sector descends deeper into crisis after taking a month to respond to the West Midlands Auto Industry Summit.
The Business Secretary reiterated the government’s support for the sector but admitted that discussions were still on-going regarding initiatives that could help carmakers such as Jaguar Land Rover during the economic downturn.
Car industry expert and Birmingham Post blogger Prof David Bailey, of Birmingham Business School, described the response as “disappointing” while Rachel Eade, of supply chain organisation Accelerate, said that “actions speak louder than words”.
Lord Mandelson was responding to a ten-point communiqué drawn up following a unique summit held at the ICC exactly a month ago in which almost 200 delegates from across industry, politics and academia joined forces to draw up a strategy to help an industry that supports almost 100,000 jobs in the West Midlands alone.
With jobs already being lost in the region at Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and LDV, the communiqué included calls for urgent action by the government in tackling some of the biggest issues facing the sector such as access to credit, credit insurance, wage subsidies to support workers in the downturn and initiatives to stimulate consumer demand.
In response Lord Mandelson said that a loans and guarantees package worth £2.3billion which had been promised more than a month ago had been approved by the European Commission and that it was up to companies “to come forward with their fully worked out applications”.
Despite having committed tens of billions of pounds in propping up the banking sector, Lord Mandelson justified the delays in providing support for carmakers by
