London, June 30 (IANS) The new British government wants ‘good relations’ with the Tata Group, which owns the Jaguar Land Rover, and the steel giant Corus, even as it has warned of an end to direct state support to carmakers.
Business secretary Vince Cable, who will soon visit India to boost industry-level ties, said he recently met Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata to discuss the latter’s plans for the luxury cars that his company produces in Britain.
Cable said he was ‘determined that we have very good relations’ with the Tata conglomerate, The Telegraph quoted him as saying.
Jaguar Land Rover was one of the manufacturers which had approached the previous Labour government for a 500 pounds financial assistance to tide over the recession which had forced it to cut down on jobs and reduce production in 2008-09.
The company has since made a recovery and even posted a profit for the year ending this March.
As The Telegraph reported at that time, Cable, then the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson, had said the government should not be offering bailouts to individual companies like Jaguar Land Rover.
‘That is the road to ruin. Almost every company in the country is going to get into difficulties,’ the Telegraph had quoted him then as saying.
As business secretary, Cable has now said the new coalition government ‘aren’t going to walk away’ from manufacturers, but will be ‘more selective and intelligent’ in its support.
He said the government was seeking to create a more competitive tax regime for manufacturers and reduce regulation.
‘We are very positive. We want to talk to industry and there will be occasions where we can help. I think where we can be more helpful, instead of dolloping out money, which is no longer an option, is helping with things like training,’ Cable said.
‘One of our first big decision in terms of the cuts was providing more money for apprenticeships.’
He criticised the number grants offered to businesses in the final days of the Labour government given Britain’s budget deficit.
At present General Motors is requesting the government for financial support to produce an electric car in Britain.
Cable said: ‘If they do approach me, then we are perfectly happy to have a conversation with them. But we are not promising things, we need to be clear about.’
The coalition government has recently cleared the former Labour government’s grants to Nissan and a loan guarantee to Ford.
