Vince Cable: Response to Intercity Express programme announcement
March 1, 2011 3:02 PM
Following the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond's decision to resume the Intercity Express Programme procurement and proceed with the Agility Trains (Hitachi and John Laing) consortium's plans, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that the Government is prepared to offer conditional funding to Hitachi. This is in support of Hitachi's plans to build a manufacturing and assembly centre at Newton Aycliffe in the North East.
He said: "With Japanese investment, Agility Trains will bring state-of-the-art technology to the UK, safeguard and boost jobs as well as create new opportunities for the UK supply chain.
"Following the announcement last week of the sale of the Redcar steelmaking plant to SSI from Thailand, this shows that the north east and the UK is attractive to inward investors."
