"Will the minister seek an urgent meeting with the
FIA, the MIA, the UK
F1 teams and their UK suppliers to see how best these clearly commercial decisions from a sports governing body can be mitigated? When other UK industries faced similar problems, regional and national support was swiftly made available to help re-employment. These skilled individuals are a particular asset to the UK and must be retained here.
"The
Financial Times, in the same week as the Motorsport Development UK [MDUK] report, headlined that Britain was losing its global dominance in this sector. British motorsport companies have lost many major global contracts over the past three years. Sadly, this trend continues unabated and unrecognised by either the government or their MDUK advisors. Most worrying is that this business is not going to the emerging nations of China or India, but rather to our direct competitors in high-value-added engineering; the US, Italy, France and Germany."
Lord Astor also branded a shortfall in the much-hyped promise of £16m to support the motorsport industry - made back in 2003 - as a 'scandal'. The actual figure made available was, in reality, 40 per cent less, at around £10m, with Lord Astor pointing out that Patricia Hewitt had 'implied an unsubstantiated financial commitment from the department of culture, media and sport, which was not forthcoming' after £3.5m included in the Hewitt commitment was now 'unavailable due to limited resources and other priorities'.
"Anyone reading those positive statements [made in 2003 and 2004] would applaud the government for their positive plans to sustain one of the few globally successful British business clusters," he continued, "However, the reality has proved to be a long way from the rhetoric. The scheme has failed to live up to its promise. It is time to admit this and move back to the traditional sector relationships with government.
