Industry News-North East Named UK's First Specialist Region For Low Carbon Vehicles

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today welcomed Nissan’s intention to invest more than £200m over the next five years in a new battery factory in Sunderland.

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery plant, Nissan’s European Centre of Excellence for Battery Manufacturing, comes as the Prime Minister announced the region would become the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area specialising in ultra-low carbon vehicles.

The battery investment makes Nissan Sunderland a good contender for manufacture of the group’s new “greener” electric vehicles.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:

“Nissan’s investment in a new battery plant and its hope to start producing electric vehicles here in Sunderland is great news for the local economy, creating up to 350 direct jobs and creating and safeguarding hundreds more in the associated supply chain.

“This investment is also hugely significant as we embark on Building Britain’s Future, our plan for recovery and beyond powered by low carbon, high technology industries, products and services.

“Sunderland could now be a strong contender to produce electric vehicles for Nissan in Europe, and we will continue to work with Nissan to ensure this happens.”

The Government is working with Nissan on supporting this investment by offering grants and loan guarantees, including support through the Automotive Assistance Programme.

Low Carbon Economic Areas (LCEAs) were introduced in the Government’s Low Carbon Industrial Strategy last week. They aim to draw together national, local and regional agencies to focus support on accelerating the growth of low carbon industries, skills base and supply chain.

The North East LCEA, led by One North East, will focus on supporting the transformation of automotive industry, providing support for innovation and demonstration, skills training and clustering of manufacturing.

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said:

“The North East has distinguished itself as the first specialised region for ultra-low carbon vehicles. This is good news not just for the North East, but for the whole of the UK, helping to attract foreign investment and securing UK’s place as a global leader in high-tech manufacturing and automotive industries.

“The collaboration between local businesses, universities and colleges will create a hub of expertise to boost innovation and accelerate business growth in this important area of ‘green’ industry.”

As part of the Low Carbon Economic Area, the Government intends to establish:

·A training centre - the first to specialise in the manufacture and maintenance of ultra-low carbon vehicles. Government is in discussions with national companies such as the AA about how the centre can help update skills to keep up with the growing use of ultra-low carbon vehicles.

·A Research & Development Centre - serving as a home for research from all five local universities bringing together fundamental and applied research in ultra-low carbon vehicle technology and use.

·An open access test track to trial the use of new technologies.

·One NorthEast is also looking at options to reopen all or part of the Leamside Rail Line, which would help improve access to the Port of Tyne to boost imports and exports in the region.

·Over the next two years 750 charging points will be installed in a range of locations in the NorthEast, including supermarkets, shopping centres, public transport installations, hospitals, universities, public buildings and domestic and business premises. The first points are currently being installed in Newcastle and Gateshead.

One North East chairman Margaret Fay said:

“One North East welcomes this visionary announcement. It confirms the North East of England’s growing role at the forefront of the low-carbon economy and cements the region’s position as a leading location for electric vehicle development in Europe.

“The North East’s Low Carbon Economic Area will be extremely important for the future of the automotive industry in the region and will enable One North East to attract further investment related to electric vehicles and their infrastructure.”

Political News-Obama and Brown head to the G8 Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change (MEF)

This week the leaders of the seventeen of the worlds largest economies will meet in L’Aquila,
Italy at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF). While some commentators have already called this “the meeting of the millennium” the outcome of this meeting is set to dictate the results of the Copenhagen Conference in December 09.

Obama and Brown have thrown down the gauntlet to the other leaders and arrive with clear policy positions already outlined. We will see if they will have the power to win over the other members of the group.

Despite the fact that the Italian organisation is reported to have been close to chaotic this
meeting will be significant in setting the global policy for energy and climate change for the next four years and beyond.

The stage is set for the world to see President Obama’s commitment to fighting climate change and how far he will be willing to push fellow world leaders to reduce their emissions. As President of one of the world’s biggest polluting countries Obama will have a job to do in showing the US commitment and real action on the ground in fighting climate change.

This is the key to influencing both the G8 set of countries and developing countries. At a recent speech to the Fabian Society Ed Miliband, highlighted the fact that gone is the day when the G8 or developed countries can tell developing countries to lower their emissions while not leading by action.

Obama will be keeping an eye on the domestic audience as the Markey-Waxman Bill heads the Senate. Should the 100-seat Senate pass the bill, ACES would be signed into law. The main criticism of the bill is the fear that the bill's stricter emissions standards would spike prices and weaken cap-and-trade impacted companies. In recent months the lobbying against the bill has intensified with the battle lines been drawn.

Republicans claim the bill has no chance of making it past the Senate. In addition to carbon trading, ACES would develop green buildings, requiring residential and commercial buildings to follow a green code.

Gordon Brown arrives to the summit calling for rich nations to establish a $100bn fund to help poor countries deal with climate change; the understanding is that the figures on the table so far at the G8 are very much lower than this.

On Monday Tony Blair called on the G8 to invest in ‘new technologies that will create employment and fight climate change. Blairs’ Climate Group NGO has produced a new report which champions green technologies, arguing that they offer the chance of "substantial job creation and growth".

The report also says that the technologies needed to meet emissions reduction goals set for 2020 are "already proven, available now and the policies needed to implement them are known”.

Finally a group of the worlds leading scientists have called for the world leaders to “recognise the impact of existing climate change in climate are primarily due to past emissions by developed nations, and that unless the burden of poverty in developing nations is alleviatedby significant financial investment, the ability for developing countries to pursue sustainable development” is greatly reduced.

So the heat is being turned up on the G8 leaders to come up with a solution.

Politics - Gordon Brown Cabinet Reshuffle June 2009

5th June 2009
* No change for Ed Miliband or Lord Mandelson
* Geoff Hoon steps down as Transport Secretary
* Labour set for big defeats in local elections

Over the last twenty-four hours the rumour mill of political intrigue and whispers driven
on by the media machine has reached overwhelming proportions. The current crisis in British politics started with the nationalisation of the banks and the global credit crisis. It was made worse with the Daily Telegraph revelations about the MPs expenses. This has resulted in all political parties and the body politic being damaged. The revenge from the public is expected to come in the form of protest votes and no votes in the European and council elections.

Party politics
It is not surprising Gordon Brown and the government are the focus of most of the criticism from the political classes, media and the public. This is the role of the government and part of the job of being the incumbent. What is surprising is that the parliamentary Labour party have embarked on a dance with death and the old Blairite Vs Brownite rivalries have again come to the surface. Many have thought that these days were over.

Over the past week at times it has looked as if the parliamentary labour party have ommitted themselves to a perverse Hari Kiri which in the end will only benefit the opposition parties and leave the grass roots supporters and party workers demoralised and bewildered in the movement they support.

Both the Conservative and Liberal Democrats are trying to take the political advantage and build on their respective improvement in the opinion polls. As expected they are calling for a general election. This is an obvious move but an interesting one when the public are so dismayed with the political classes over the expense scandal. Opinion polls have a history of being proved wrong so it would be naive of Cameron and Clegg to put all their faith in them.

The Conservatives have been damaged by the expenses scandal in the same way that Labour have been. Many commentators agree that the Cameron team are ‘policy lite’ and have yet to come out with some concrete ideas as to how they would govern. In comparison the Liberal Democrats while unscathed by the expenses scandal still remain the smallest party who never gain from the electoral system. The challenge for Clegg is that many members of the public think that Vince Cable is either the chancellor, the leader of the party or indeed both. They also challenges in communicating their policy to the electorate. However it is important to note that early indications show that the Liberal Democrats will gain in the local elections the results which will be delivered on Sunday evening.

The Future
It is expected that Gordon Brown will successfully reshuffle the cabinet which should work to bolster his strength. If he achieves this the calls for him to step down from within his party should calm down. He will immediately need to set about focusing on the general election which will be within twelve months. The challenge he now faces is to get the support from his back benchers, the parliamentary Labour party and most importantly to reconnect with the grass roots. To achieve this one would expect that he will need to swing the left and back to the core Labour heart land. He will need to be seen to invest and make real tangible changes on the ground in lowering unemployment, solving the crisis in education and investing in
industry.

Brown needs to focus on cleaning up Westminster and will be hoping that the economy
improves and that the fiscal policy delivers the changes that are needed to beat the credit crisis.

Cameron and the Conservatives will continue to ride high in the opinion polls and pose a great threat in the next general election. Today they are bookies favourite to win but maybe not with the landslide that the current opinion polls indicate. They will need to work on the nuts and bolts and communicating their policies.

The Liberal Democrats while making inroads in the local elections will have to work harder to convert their gains in the opinion polls to become a reality at the ballot box. In summary there is a tidal wave of change that is underway in UK politics. Twelve months is a long time in politics and it is possible that Brown and his cabinet could turn the tide and win the next election. But at present this is not appear a realistic possibility.

Changes in Cabinet
* Alan Johnson – Moves from Department of Health and becomes the new Home Secretary
* Yvette Cooper – Moves from Chief Secretary to the Treasury to Work and Pensions Secretary * John Hutton – Steps down as Defence Secretary
* Andy Burnham – Moves from the Department of Culture to become the new Health Secretary
* Geoff Hoon – Steps Down from office
* Bob Ainsworth – Defence Secretary
* John Denham – Moves from Innovation Secretary to become the Minister for Health

No Changes
* David Miliband – Foreign Secretary
* Ed Miliband – Climate change Secretary
* Alistair Darling – Chancellor
* Lord Mandelson – Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
* Jim Murphy – Minister for Scotland
* Douglas Alexander – Minister for International Development
* Hilary Benn – Minster for Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
* Harriet Harman – Leader of the House
* Peter Hain – Minister for Wales
* Jack Straw – Justice Minister
* Ed Balls – Education & Children’s Secretary
* Lady Royall – Leader of the House of Lords
* Sean WoodWard – Northern Ireland Secretary

New Arrivals
* Sir Alan Sugar to be Enterprise Tsar – Non Cabinet post
Other Political Changes
* Paul Goodman, Conservative MP for Wycombe – Shadow Communities Secretary to
step down at next election.

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