‘Act now’ call to Mandelson

Nov 19 2009 by Paul Gannon, Evening Gazette

FAILURE to act on key issues facing the chemical and pharmaceutical industries will drive investment and jobs abroad, leaders will tell Business Secretary Lord Mandelson tonight.

In a speech to the Chemical Industries’ Association dinner, Lord Mandelson, pictured, is expected to cite Teesside as a trailblazer for the UK’s new green processing sector.

His words will sound hollow, though, to staff made redundant earlier this week at Biofuels Corporation at Seal Sands - one of the companies hailed as a successor to traditional petrochemical-based plants.

Burdensome regulation, energy problems and the continuing lack of business finance are all acting as barriers to investment in the UK, according to the CIA.

Well over a third cited the problem of credit availability as holding back business.

The Chemical Industries Association’s chief executive Steve Elliott, who will deliver his address to a 1,000-strong audience, including members of the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), said: “The Government has done some good things to help business since Peter Mandelson’s appointment, including the motor vehicle scrappage scheme which we lobbied for, but I am concerned that if we do not tackle fundamental issues such as regulation, energy and credit we will lose out to our competitor countries during the recovery.

“Tonight I will be launching our blueprint to revitalise manufacturing in the UK. Chemical and pharmaceutical businesses supply the rest of manufacturing with their raw and our innovations are leading the way in the transition to a low carbon economy.

“I want to make sure we can maintain and enhance that position.

“With 70% of our businesses foreign headquartered and able to invest anywhere in the world, action now is critical for the UK to compete for investment.”