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 08 August 2007
Confident Consumers - A Fair Deal creating Prosperity & Success for All
 
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Support for Manufacturing

Since the launch of the Government's Manufacturing Strategy in 2002, the Government has:

 

  • Set up the Manufacturing Advisory Service to give manufacturers in every region direct access to practical advice and support from manufacturing experts. Since it was created in 2002, MAS has dealt with over 86,000 enquiries, carried out over 15,000 on-site manufacturing reviews and completed over 4,700 in-depth assignments. It has generated over £224 million in value-added for manufacturing firms, based on estimates of impact using seven standard productivity measures relating to quality, cost and delivery.

 

  • Set up Innovation and Growth Teams to plan how the UK can best respond to the competitive challenges that key UK industries, such as automotive, aerospace, chemicals and materials, will face in the future. You can find information on one of the recently launched IGTs via the Materials Innovation Growth Team page.

 

  • Provided strong macroeconomic stability - low inflation, low interest rates, low unemployment - possibly the most important way a Government can help manufacturing by allowing businesses to plan and invest with confidence for the long term.

 

  • Supported investment through changes to Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax, through the Small Firms Loan Guarantee, and through regional programmes such as Selective Finance for Investment in England and new regional venture capital funds.

 

  • Strengthened the UK's world class science base with the largest sustained increase in the Science Budget for over a decade, and launched the Technology Programme to support research and development in key new and emerging technologies.

 

  • Extended the R&D Tax Credit to all companies, overwhelmingly benefiting manufacturers by encouraging them to invest in R&D.

 

  • Put in place a network of Sector Skills Councils to ensure industry gets the skills it needs, and strengthened Apprenticeships by introducing a structure that is more responsive to employers' needs.

 

  • Encouraged the spread of best practice through the extension of the Industry Forum programme to new sectors.

 

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