Ann Watson, CEO of Skills Charity Enginuity, which promotes skills in the engineering and manufacturing sectors, broadly welcomed the Chancellor's Spending Review yesterday.
She said: "Today’s Spending Review sends a welcome signal of government support for the UK's priority industrial sectors, with significant investment announced for clean energy, defence and transport. This increase in capital investment will help create demand across the UK’s industrial supply chains, providing SMEs with a confidence boost to realise the Government’s ambitious economic and decarbonisation goals. With fiscal parameters now in place, the crucial next step is a comprehensive Industrial Strategy that provides clarity, detail and meaningful policies to set a concrete vision for the future of UK industry.
"Enginuity is also pleased to see the Chancellor acknowledge that achieving growth requires investment in skills, with an injection of £1.2 billion of additional investment per year by 2028-29 into the skills system. Its impact will depend on allocation and execution and will no doubt hinge on further details due to be announced in the forthcoming post-16 strategy".
