Lords heard plan to save industry
This afternoon Business Secretary Lord Mandleson gave the House of Lords details of a support package for the troubled UK car industry.
The package, thought to be worth up to £2.3bn, provides access and guarantees to loans that will ease financial pressure as the global economic slowdown creates difficult conditions for car manufacture and sales.
Part of the deal will see a scheme making £1.3bn worth of European loans available to car manufacturers and larger suppliers. The sector will also get £1bn of loans guaranteed by the state.
Mr Mandelson made it clear that this assistance was being given on the basis that the automotive industry will use it to innovate and change, rather than simply to prop up existing structures.
'Today's measures will provide a specific boost to the industry, providing real help and laying the foundations of its reinvention for a low carbon future.'
In the Upper House, Lord Hunt of Wirral said the package was too little, too late. He told peers: 'after years of persecuting the motorist, ministers now offer a range of placebos to an industry facing the worst crisis it has ever faced'.
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)