The body representing North East automotive firms has called for a level playing field with other countries competing for sector investment.
North East Automotive Alliance boss Paul Butler said he echoed the recent comments of Unipart executive chairman John Neil, who revealed his 8,000-job firm was assessing whether to "pivot" to the US in the wake of "gaming changing" incentives offered by the US authorities. Mr Butler, who leads the body billed as the UK's largest automotive cluster, representing more than 300 firms, called for the Government to step up or risk losing business.
He said: “I echo the thoughts of many others in the UK automotive sector, all we ask for is a level playing field with competition across the globe, particularly Europe. North East based multinationals compete internally for investment, without similar support the business case for investment does not stack up to that of our international competition and therefore investment will go to other non-UK plants and UK competitiveness declines. This is particularly important as when it comes to allocating supply contracts the UK subsidiaries cannot compete with their sister plants and therefore there is a danger that future business is lost to the UK.”
