PM: Many reasons why Tata chose UK for battery plant

ODN

Rishi Sunak insists it is not just taxpayer money that enticed Tata to announce a new £4 billion battery factory in the UK which will create thousands of jobs. After months of negotiations, the prime minister says Tata made its choice based on “the quality of the workforce” and other elements which “make it more attractive for businesses to invest." Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00 Not just in America, in Death Valley, so we voted for it.

00:02 First of all, this is a fantastic vote of confidence in the UK and the UK economy.

00:07 It's one of the largest ever investments in the UK auto sector that we've seen.

00:12 It's getting us ready for the future and the transition to electric vehicles.

00:15 It's billions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs. So it's great news.

00:20 Look, there are a range of things that go into a company making a decision like this,

00:25 and one of them is actually really important. It's the quality of our skills,

00:29 the quality of our people here who are fantastic. You just walk around this plant and you see

00:33 what incredible people we've got. It's about the competitiveness of our tax regime.

00:37 It's how we approach regulation, and it's about the relationship with the government,

00:41 making sure that we can support companies like Tata and JLR to make these investments.

00:45 Those are all the ingredients that go into it and many more, but the main takeaway today is a

00:50 fantastic vote of confidence in the future of the UK economy.

00:53 When I was chancellor, I set up something called the Automotive Transformation Fund,

00:56 which was always there to provide targeted investment in strategic industries where we

01:01 thought it would make sense. But what is crucial about an investment like this is it's not just

01:06 going to be about that. It's going to be, as I said, about the quality of the workforce that

01:11 we have here, the quality of our infrastructure, the road and rail connections, the approach to

01:15 regulation, the competitiveness of our tax regime, which we have changed to make it more attractive

01:20 for businesses to invest. That's a change that the chancellor made in the budget that encourages

01:24 companies to make investments like this. When you put all of that together, this is a great day.

01:29 Billions of pounds of investment, thousands and thousands of new jobs,

01:33 and a fantastic vote of confidence in the UK.

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