that it wants £500m from the Government to back a joint partnership with the Chinese company, Envision, to build the factory in Somerset instead of the other main contender, Spain. It may seem rough that British citizens will have to stump up nearly a tenner a head to pay JLR’s Indian owner, the Tata Group, to do so, but it would be money well spent.
So this anti-car groundswell is combining with a technological revolution that will mean a much smaller industry looking a decade or more ahead. That is what makes this a tough question. All government funds are limited, so do you spend taxpayers’ money in supporting a declining industry or do you direct them towards businesses in growing sectors of the economy?My answer to this is that each major case should be taken individually, and I have not seen the detail of the JLR proposal.
Third, India matters. It is the world’s most populous country, having passed China, and it will probably become the world’s third largest economy by about 2040. It makes sense in broad strategic terms to support one of the country’s strongest enterprises. It is a signal to the world. The report points out that from the 1980s to 2021 bonds had performed reasonably well – it was the long period of falling inflation and corresponding declining interest rates – but last year was a disaster. The authors wrote: “The inflation shock of 2022 meant real bond returns were the worst on record for many countries, including the USA, UK, Switzerland and for developed markets overall.”
HamishMcRae5 Well we propped up the Steel Industry and the Chinese took the money and are still shutting it down. So why not chuck more in.