Government fund is there to be used

Apr 30 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

CHANCELLOR Darling's Budget has, inevitably, attracted considerable attention and will continue to dominate the headlines for some time to come.

However, there was one detail in it which has attracted little attention, but which should be of great interest to business people, particularly in this region.

That was the Chancellor’s announcement of a £750m Strategic Investment Fund, set up to back the Government’s New Industry, New Jobs initiative, which aims to ensure high growth, high innovation firms receive the financing they need.

The Government plans to back businesses in a range of markets and sectors, from printable electronics to pharmaceuticals and life sciences.

This should make the ears of business people in the North East prick up as these are areas in which we are building up, or have built up, a considerable expertise.

We can, for example, point to the decision by PETEC, the national flagship centre for the new technology of printable electronics, to base itself in NETPark, Sedgefield.

The work of companies such as Kromek, ROAR Particles and ANTnano – all also based at NETPark – is gathering interest from the four corners of the globe and putting North East innovation firmly back on the map.

The fund also includes £250m to be invested in low carbon business opportunities and innovation and this will include initiatives on low carbon vehicles, as well as the nuclear and renewable energy industries.

Again, this presents the North East with an enormous opportunity, for we are a world leader in many forms of renewable energy. NaREC is based in Blyth, where Clipper Windpower is developing the world’s largest wind turbine and the North East is England’s largest timber producer, which means we also have a commanding lead in biomass.

We are a centre for the development of electric vehicles and, on Teesside, we produce something like 60% of the UK’s hydrogen which will one day be used to power them. All this is in addition to our strengths in the fields of photovoltaics and biofuels.

The £750m sounds like an awful lot of money, but I know that in other regions business leaders are also pointing to the existence of this fund and urging firms to get their hands on as much of it as possible. We must resolve to do the same and remember: ‘Shy bairns get nowt’.

Stewart Watkins is managing director of County Durham Development Company, which is driving the development of NETPark and NETPark Net.