Rolls-Royce snubs UK for generous Germany
Sep 29 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal
AEROSPACE giant Rolls-Royce has snubbed Government support to help it build a test centre in the UK after being offered £10m to launch the new facility in Germany.
The aircraft engine maker, which employs more than 400 staff at its Sunderland plant, turned down a multi-million pound Government support package to build the new site in its hometown of Derby after Germany pledged a more generous handout. It is understood the German offer was about £3m more than that tabled in the UK.
The news comes as a blow to the UK, with the Government hoping to secure high-end research projects on these shores.
Derby will also miss out on about 95 new jobs that are set to be created by the new facility, which will instead be built in the state of Brandenburg in Germany.
Rolls-Royce said the decision, which came after a year of negotiations, was based largely on the size and availability of the funding.
A spokeswoman said: “We decided to locate the test centre there because of the availability of a very attractive package from the state of Brandenburg in the timescale we needed, as we want to get it up and running by 2009.”
But Rolls-Royce, which already has a base in Brandenburg, stressed that it has invested more than £830m in the UK over the past five years, just last week opening £100m worth of facilities in Derby. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said the test centre news was “disappointing”, adding that it had worked hard to try to persuade Rolls-Royce to build it in the UK.
Rolls-Royce’s decision was branded a “devastating blow to the UK’s industrial prestige” by the Conservative Party.
Alan Duncan, shadow business and enterprise secretary, said: “Four days after Gordon Brown told the Labour Conference that his vision was for Britain to be a leader in enterprise and modern manufacturing, this important part of an iconic British company bails out of Britain.”
He added: “What have they been doing while a German grant sucked away such an important part of British industry?”
