Rolls-Royce to spend 300m
ROLLS-Royce is pumping £300m into four new UK manufacturing sites over the next five years.
The jet engine maker will receive £45m in state grants to help fund the expansion, which will create or secure 800 jobs.
The money is part of a £150m government investment package aimed at helping manufacturers take advantage of new technologies.
Rolls-Royce chief executive Sir John Rose welcomed the boost, but said he hoped the government’s new interest in manufacturing would “reverse several decades of an aversion to industrial strategy”.
Business secretary Lord Peter Mandelson said it was a “complete myth” that Britain does not make anything any more, adding that the UK is the sixth-biggest manufacturing economy in the world.
Nissan is also about to invest nearly £13m at its Sunderland plant.