Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones has lobbied the Chancellor for an extension of tax credits in Research & Development to encourage greater investment and job creation in the manufacturing sector.

Following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, delivered to the House of Commons yesterday (29 November), Marcus asked an oral question in his continuing support of the UK’s manufacturing industry.

It follows a report published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers about the positive impact that the extension of R&D tax credits could have on industry. The report has been endorsed by 36 large companies, including Jaguar Land Rover and Caterpillar. It is estimated that the additional investment by Government could create up to 31,300 new jobs across the UK.

Marcus had lobbied the Government to extend above-the-line R & D tax credits to help the manufacturing sector. In his reply, the Chancellor, George Osborne, praised Marcus as a powerful champion for Nuneaton and went onto confirm that he had listened to the arguments made by both Marcus Jones and business organisations and would outline the precise details in his next Budget.

Commenting on the Chancellor’s announcement, Marcus said:

“This is an important step forward made by Government to increase the UK’s competitiveness. Our country has fallen from fourth to twelfth the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index and the share of manufacturing in the UK economy has halved with 1.7 million manufacturing jobs lost during the period that the last Government were in office.

“Rebalancing our economy is critical to our nation’s future and the Government is absolutely right to offer further incentives to the manufacturing sector to help create new sustainable jobs for the future.”