UK Business Secretary To Consult On Low CO2 Indus Strategy In Mar

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LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Friday he will consult with Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband in early March on a low carbon industrial strategy.

The strategy will look at a “green” job creation scheme and ways to ensure that U.K. companies are equipped to compete internationally to supply low carbon goods and services.

“As the U.K. shifts over to civil nuclear power, carbon capture and renewable energy, we need to ask what more we can do to strengthen the U.K.’s ability to build the companies that will compete for the supply chain work that will support these industries,” Mandelson said in a speech at the Cumbria Economic Forum in northern England.

Meanwhile, Mandelson also said the measures the government has taken to support lending to U.K. firms are beginning to take effect.

He said that in the first five weeks of the GBP1 billion Enterprise Finance Guarantee, which guarantees loans to small firms, 400 loans have been offered worth more than GBP1 million a day.

He said 30,000 firms have had a free business health check through a separate scheme and 60,000 firms have taken advantage of a scheme to defer tax payments.