The Chancellor has delivered his 2012 Autumn Statement to parliament
The Department for Business has secured £2.4 billion of additional funding to support growth, with a focus on skills and science projects.
This money reinforces the Government’s commitment to plan for medium and long term recovery and will aid the development of an industrial strategy.
Some of the main announcements are as follows:-
- An additional £600 million is being invested in science, research and innovation, taking the total investment since the 2010 spending review to an additional £1.5 billion.
- To encourage companies to invest here in the UK, an extra £120 million is to be invested in supply chains
- In order to address the long-term structural gap in lending to small businesses, £1 billion has been confirmed for the business bank.
- The Regional Growth Fund will also receive an additional £350 million, bringing the total available in 2012-13 to £2.75 billion.
- The first stage of the Government’s response to Lord Heseltine’s independent review on economic growth, ‘No Stone Unturned’.
- Extra money for the Employer Ownership Pilot, taking it to £340 million overall and giving businesses funding so they can design and develop their own training programmes.
- Increased funding of £140 million for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to help small and medium sized business export abroad.
- For the first time UK Export Finance, the Government’s export credit agency, will be able to issue loans to overseas customers and buyers wanting to purchase goods from UK businesses. £1.5 billion is going to help our smallest companies to access growing markets overseas.
- A package of measures to cut back red tape, that business has told Government stops them from growing.