Cable calls for local solutions to hard times

LIBERAL Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable today said the government should not bail out industries such as the auto sector, but instead local and regional government should be given more power and budget to help local industries.
He told TheBusinessDesk: “In general I’m sceptical about the benefit of regional development agencies but there are certain parts of the country where I think they are felt to have done a reasonable job. The North West and West Midlands are two areas where I get reasonably good feedback in co-ordinated strategy in transport and planning.
“Where they work we shouldn’t undermine them. I just want to see more decision making at a local and regional level.
On the recent £1.5m pledged by the NWDA to help the region’s auto sector he said: “I have doubts about industry specific schemes but at the end of the day if we devolve decision making we have to respect the decisions made locally.”
He added that he thought it much more important for local government to “concentrate on decent infrastructure”, particularly in light of Greater Manchester’s recent failed Transport Infrastructure Fund bid.
He also told business leaders at a Manchester Chamber event this morning that the 5% business tax rate should not be scrapped, but instead introduced on a sliding scale over the next three years to ease the pain for companies.
He added: “The one practical thing the government can do is smooth-out the increase in business rates over a three year period. A lot of businesses tell me they are very worried about having an increase in business rates at the worst possible time.”