Motor industry calls for government support to limit recession impacts
Thu 20 November 2008
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The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF) have written to the Chancellor and the Business Secretary to request support measures for the motor industry to mitigate the effects of the economic recession.
The motor industry is calling for measures to enable better access to funding as well as to improve incentives for fleet and private car buyers. It is also looking for help to speed up the allocation of existing funding to support training, R&D projects and energy efficiency measures.
The SMMT/RMIF letter to Mr Darling and Lord Mandelson comes against the backdrop of the news that UK vehicle production fell 27.1% in October, compared with the same month last year. Car production fell 25.1% in the same period. The SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: “The October production figures reflect the rapid reduction in global demand for motor vehicles and we expect to see further reductions in factory output in November and December.”
A number of motor companies have announced the introduction of short-time working or redundancies as manufacturers try to manage the impacts of the rapidly falling demand for vehicles.
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