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Vince Cables Missed Opportunity In Bis New Industrial Strategy
18 September 2012
The Environmental Industries Commission has said the Vince Cable has missed an opportunity by not including the UK's environmental industry as a "key sector"
Vince Cable, BIS Secretary of State spoke at Imperial College, London in September, where he identified aerospace, automotives and life sciences as the "key sectors" of BIS' new industrial strategy.
In response to this, the Environmental Industries Commission's Executive Chairman, Adrian Wilkes, said: "Vince Cable's support for the concept of active industrial strategies for key sectors of the British economy is welcome after decades of political opposition by Tory and labour Ministers. But it is a missed opportunity as he has overlooked the UK's environmental industry as a "key sector" for Government action to support the jobs, profits and exports it could create in the £3.3tr worldwide environmental marketplace.
"From China to Germany, our leading competitors already recognise that active Government support, well-coordinated across governmental departments, creates green growth.
"EIC recently persuaded the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee of the need for an environmental industrial strategy. And last week Ed Miliband committed Labour to "an active industrial strategy for green growth."
The Environmental Industries Commission's 2011 Manifesto "Driving Growth and Competitiveness in the UK's Green Economy" set out a series of recommendations to the Government on an "Environmental Industrial Strategy" - including a fully-resourced Sponsoring Unit in BIS and an "Environmental Technology Industry Forum" to coordinate the range of policies on innovation; investment; skills training; and export support.
"Cable, and his Cabinet colleagues Cameron and Osborne, are behind the curve in failing to fully realise that the UK environmental industry can be a major force in driving the UK economy out of recession. There is no time to waste when our international competitors are already steaming ahead in one of the major industries of the future."
Darrel Moore
