Chancellor announces £60m investment in aerospace

The government will provide £30m in funding, which will be matched by industry.

In a statement the chancellor said: ‘Up to 27,000 new planes are needed between now and 2030, worth billions of pounds to the UK economy in contracts. That is why I am announcing…that, together with industry, we will invest around £60m in a dedicated facility for aerospace manufacturing as part of £2bn of support for this growing sector.’

The chancellor made the announcement yesterday, January 16, 2013 at a visit to the Manufacturing Technology Centre, part of the government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres that promote high-end manufacturing in the UK.

The aerospace facility will allow companies to develop new materials such as lightweight carbon fibre for use in planes, jet engines and civil helicopters that will be exported globally. The funding will also support the creation of a national centre for Additive Manufacturing to develop new products for aero-engines and aircraft landing gears, as well as automotive and medical devices.

This investment is part of the £2bn of joint government and industry funding for the Aerospace Technology Institute that will be invested in the sector over the next seven years. 

Dick Elsy, chief executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult said: ‘This is a very exciting time for manufacturing in the UK. In the two years since its formation, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult is set to exceed its targets in terms of the investment generated from industry, the projects secured and the collaborative R&D delivered.

‘It is clear that industry recognises and embraces the opportunities that we offer and this latest expansion of capability at the MTC is a tremendous new resource which will help the UK’s high value manufacturing sector - and the aerospace sector in particular - to continue to go from strength to strength.’