Pulse.Assent

The Prime Minister will today make a new long-term commitment to work with Jordan as it seeks to transform its economy to make it more inclusive and provide jobs and opportunities for all Jordanians.

Following on from her visit to Iraq where the Prime Minister discussed the success of the military campaign against Daesh, she will make the case in Jordan today for going beyond militarily addressing Daesh to tackling its root causes, including by creating social and economic opportunities for all.

The UK will initially provide £94.5 million to improve education, create jobs, and boost Jordan’s long-term economic resilience. We will then look to provide a significant uplift in our funding over the coming years, as Jordan implements its ambitious reform programmes, including making the private sector a particular engine of growth.

The UK’s support will:

• provide £60 million in new investment grants to create new jobs, boost productivity and increase economic resilience
• help to construct critical infrastructure, benefitting millions of people and creating thousands of jobs
• get 10,000 Jordanians into apprenticeships or vocational skills training
• improve education quality for millions of Jordanian children, building the workforce of the future

The UK will mobilise partnerships between British and Jordanian businesses, helping Jordan to kick-start its economy and creating private sector jobs. The Prime Minister will offer public and private sector expert advice, including from University of Oxford and London School of Economics economists, and establish a new UK-Jordan policy dialogue on economic reform, led by senior officials.

Providing this kind of support is firmly in the UK’s national interest, boosting the resilience of a country on the frontline of multiple regional crises and incentivising people to stay in their neighbourhood rather than make the perilous journey to Europe.

The Prime Minister will call on the rest of the international community to join us in this transformative effort.

Speaking in Amman, the Prime Minister said:

Jordan’s stability is crucial to our interests in the Middle East and we are committed to helping them create jobs for all Jordanians.

I call on other countries to join us in this transformative effort so Jordan can continue to deliver vital support for the Syria crisis and remain a beacon of hope in the Middle East.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

Jordan is on the front line of multiple crises in the Middle East and our new 10-year partnership will deliver economic stability for Jordan, creating jobs and helping to build a more prosperous, safer world.

This will further strengthen our relationship with Jordan and every penny invested by the UK will encourage more from other donors to boost Jordan’s economic resilience, helping them deliver on their pledge to get every child into education and to create 200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will today (Wednesday 29 November) meet leaders from across Africa to discuss developments in Zimbabwe and wider African security and prosperity.

The Foreign Secretary is attending a major summit in Cote D’Ivoire, West Africa, alongside EU and African Union leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Jacob Zuma.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

Recent events in Zimbabwe offer a moment of hope for the country and its people. This is a time to look to the future and to make clear that Britain shares the common vision of a prosperous, peaceful and democratic Zimbabwe.

I am encouraged by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s words so far. During his inauguration speech, he promised to reform the economy and give investors the security of title they need if Zimbabwe is to fulfil its potential and create the jobs that are sorely needed. For as long as the President acts on his words, then Britain is willing to work alongside him and offer all the support we can.

The UK’s relationship with Africa and the African Union will continue to go from strength to strength and as we leave the EU I want to work even more closely with my counterparts in the region.

The Foreign Secretary will highlight the role the UK can play across the continent, as a genuine partner for prosperity, working with African nations to achieve political and economic stability.

Mr Johnson will speak with representatives of the 18 African countries which are also members of The Commonwealth ahead of the UK hosted Commonwealth Summit next April. With 60% of the Commonwealth’s population under 30, it is particularly important to the UK that the organisation faces up to the challenges of the region and addresses their ambitions for a better life.

He will also raise the issue of the illegal wildlife trade. Tackling this serious crime is a priority for the UK government and we look forward to bringing leading voices together to work towards new solutions at the London 2018 Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in October next year.

On the illegal wildlife trade, the Foreign Secretary added:

Discussing how we eradicate the illegal wildlife trade is also a top priority for me in my talks with African Union countries. It is not only a deplorable trade that endangers some of our most iconic species of wildlife, but is also a lucrative source of income for transnational criminals which brings misery to local communities.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Following North Korea’s ballistic missile launch on 28 November, FCO Minister for Asia and Pacific Mark Field summoned the DPRK Ambassador to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Following the meeting, Minister Field said:

I summoned the North Korean Ambassador to the Foreign Office to make clear to him our condemnation of this latest ballistic missile test.

North Korea claims it wants to bring security and prosperity to its people. But its actions are creating only insecurity and deepening its isolation.

The UK will continue to work with our partners and allies for a diplomatic solution. I urge the regime to abandon its illegal pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missiles and return to dialogue.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

On 29 November 2017 the Prime Minister became the first major foreign leader to visit Iraq since the fall of Mosul, announcing the UK’s commitment to addressing the evolving threat from Daesh and countering the dispersal of foreign fighters as Daesh is squeezed out of the battlefield in Syria and Iraq.

Speaking to British troops in Iraq, the Prime Minister said that our military success against Daesh means they are increasingly losing control of their territory and resources, but in response to our military success, Daesh has become more diffuse, organic and networked.

So the Prime Minister has committed to three specific things to counter the evolving Daesh threat and to manage the risk of foreign fighters returning to Europe:

• First, we will deepen our counter-terrorism relationship with Iraq. The UK will invest £10m over the next three years to build Iraq’s counter-terrorism capability to meet the new threat. This means more personnel working with Government of Iraq counter-terrorism agencies. And it means deploying law enforcement resources to develop effective judicial pathways. This will allow us to spot and respond to terrorist threats against Iraq and ourselves, in partnership with Iraqi security forces.
• Second, we will work with partners across the region to develop border infrastructure, watch-lists and biometric capabilities, to counter foreign fighter dispersal. This will help ensure foreign fighters are identified, stopped, and disrupted before they can harm people, and so we can manage the return of women and children.
• Third, we will do more to tackle terrorist abuse of the internet. The Prime Minister has advocated, most recently at the UN General Assembly with President Macron, Prime Minister Gentiloni and 70 other countries, for the major communications companies to live up to their responsibility, and remove content within one to two hours of release. The companies have begun to act: they have set up the industry led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism but they need to go further and faster in identifying and removing content and ultimately preventing it from going up in the first place.

The Prime Minister has also announced today that the UK will continue to support Iraqi defence and security through the provision of officer training, including places for Iraqi students on high profile UK courses at the Military Colleges and the Defence Academy, and UK training teams continuing to develop Iraqi trainers, supporting them in the delivery of courses on topics such as Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices, combat medicine, military planning, logistics, and force protection.

The Prime Minister visited British, Coalition and Iraqi troops at Taji earlier today and congratulated them on the success of the counter Daesh campaign. Around 80 British troops are based at Taji, and the Prime Minister had the opportunity to see them alongside their Coalition counterparts, training the Iraqi security forces.

Speaking in Iraq, the Prime Minister said:

Daesh’s ability to spread propaganda at speed drew terrorists to Iraq and Syria from around the world, contributing to the death of many thousands of innocent people and the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure.

Military success against Daesh means they are increasingly losing control of the territory, resources and population that allowed them to be a uniquely dangerous threat to Iraq, the region and Europe.

But we have always expected that the threat Daesh posed would evolve. In response to our military success, Daesh has become more diffuse, organic and networked. The UK is committed not only to defeating Daesh militarily but also to countering the dispersal of foreign fighters from Iraq and Syria.

Nicholas Henshall, 44, was found guilty of sexual assault on a child at Liverpool Crown Court in September this year.

He initially received a 20 month sentence suspended for 2 years, and a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. His sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

At a hearing held today, the Court quashed the original sentence and replaced it with 20 months imprisonment without suspension, less 28 days credit for time spent on qualifying curfew. The 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order is still in place. Henshall has been ordered to surrender himself by tomorrow, 30 November, to begin his sentence.

Following the hearing, the Solicitor General said:

“Nicholas Henshall committed a horrible crime on a vulnerable young boy who showed immense courage in reporting the offending. The original sentence did not reflect the seriousness of this offence and I welcome today’s ruling from the Court of Appeal that he will now be imprisoned.”

• Greg Clark confirms details of £120 million of government’s flagship Faraday Battery Challenge investment into making the UK a world leader in the development and production of battery technology
• £80 million set to be invested in a new state-of-the-art automotive battery development facility, the UK’s first ever facility of this kind, based in West Midlands, following a successful bid by a consortium led by Coventry and Warwickshire LEP and including Warwick Manufacturing Group
• Government will shortly publish details of its Automotive Sector Deal agreement reached with industry, with a strategic vision that builds on the collaborative partnership established between government and the auto sector
• Business Secretary also confirms £53 million of funding for new aerospace projects boosting the West Midlands strength in this sector

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark has today (Wednesday 29 November) announced that Coventry and Warwickshire will be the home of the new National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility (NMDF).

The facility, with £80 million of funding from the government’s flagship £246 million investment in battery technology – the Faraday Battery Challenge – will be the UK’s first ever battery development facility and will help establish the UK as one of the world leader’s in battery technology and innovation.

A key part of the Automotive Sector Deal, the new centre will build on the West Midlands exceptional reputation for automotive expertise and research and development (R&D) with a facility that will host cutting-edge production and assembly processes and support the future scale-up of battery technologies.

The facility will be responsible for turning the most promising early and mid-stage battery research and development activities into scalable business propositions that are commercially viable, while also providing a learning environment to enable training and skills development. The new centre will be an independent facility that is openly accessible to UK-based companies wishing to develop battery technologies.

In a speech to the Battery and Energy Storage Conference, Greg Clark confirmed that the area had won the national competition, led by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), for the new centre, following a successful bid by a consortium led by Coventry and Warwickshire LEP and including Warwick Manufacturing Group. The open competition was overseen by APC and judged by an independent panel.

Business and Energy Secretary, Greg Clark said:

Battery technology is one of the most game-changing forms of energy innovation and it is one of the cornerstones of our ambition, through the Industrial Strategy and the Faraday Challenge, to ensure that the UK leads the world, and reaps the economic benefits, in the global transition to a low carbon economy.

The new facility, based in Coventry and Warwickshire, will propel the UK forward in this thriving area, bringing together the best minds from academia and industry together to deliver innovation and R&D that will further enhance the West Midlands international reputation as a cluster of automotive excellence.

Dr Ralf Speth, CEO Jaguar Land Rover, said

If the UK wants to stay competitive and make domestic EV manufacturing viable in the long run, a high level of ambition is required as set out in the Industrial Strategy. JLR is already investing heavily to make the vision of autonomous and electric mobility come true.

From 2020, all of our new vehicles will be electrified with Mild Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid and Battery Electric solutions, and these are already being designed in the West Midlands. We also intend to produce battery electric vehicles in the region, bringing the West Midlands to the forefront of modern mobility in the UK.

Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group, said

WMG, at the University of Warwick, has a strong record of industry innovation partnerships going back many years. We are delighted that we will be home to the National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility, a core part of the Faraday Battery Challenge.

This will be an openly accessible centre of real impact, working coherently with the application-inspired fundamental research emerging from Faraday Institution and ensuring the transfer of technology takes place at scale to support the industrialisation of batteries in the UK.

This joined up end-to-end approach will be a UK first, and is critical to ensure our fundamental research translates into sustaining and growing manufacturing jobs in the UK.

Faraday Challenge winners

During his speech the Business Secretary also announced the winners of £40 million of additional Faraday Battery Challenge investment, allocated through Innovate UK led Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund innovation competitions, that will help make UK businesses a world leader in battery technology.

27 innovative projects are being funded, involving 66 organisations, covering key technologies such as the development of battery materials and cell manufacturing, design and production of modules and packs including advances in thermal management and battery management systems, and recycling and recyclability of battery packs.

Innovate UK Chief Executive, Ruth McKernan said:

The Faraday Battery Challenge is breaking new ground because it offers for the first time a co-ordinated programme of competitions across research, innovation and scale-up.

It will therefore draw the very best of the UK’s world-leading research into commercial technologies and put UK businesses at the forefront of electric vehicle battery development.

Aerospace R&D funding

Following the launch of the Industrial Strategy White Paper, Business Secretary Greg Clark has also today announced £53.7 million of funding for 7 R&D projects to grow innovation in the aerospace sector. This funding is part of government’s work with industry through the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) to tackle barriers to growth, boost exports and grow high value jobs.

Today’s announcement builds on the £923 million of government investment delivered through the ATI programme, which has supported 196 projects involving 208 different companies and organisations. Establishing the Institute in 2013, government and industry made a joint commitment to invest £3.9 billion in civil aerospace R&D projects by 2026.

Two of these projects, Digital Reconfigurable Additive Manufacturing facilities for Aerospace (DRAMA) and the Open Flight Deck project, led by GE Aviation, will directly benefit the Midlands. A further project – the Zephyr Innovation Programme (ZIP) led by Airbus – will develop aerospace battery technology amongst other areas.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

Earlier this week, we launched our ambitious Industrial Strategy which builds on our significant economic strengths, while looking at innovative ways to improve our productivity and will ensure government continues to work closely with industries including our UK aerospace sector.

The UK aerospace sector is one of the most successful in the world, which is why we are today announcing £53.7 million of investment in 7 aerospace research and development (R&D) projects across the UK. This investment, part of the £3.9 billion government and industry committed to this sector by 2026. The Aerospace Technology Institute plays a crucial role in helping to direct this investment and maintain UK excellence in the sector.

Notes to editors

Additional quotes:

Simon Saunders, CEO, Ariel Motor Company, said:

We face significant challenges when looking to progress our vehicle technologies toward low and zero emission platforms, with our combination of specialist niche requirements not currently being met by the existing UK supply chain. Therefore, we are particularly interested in the proposed centre of excellence and the planned capability to support such a broad range of manufacturing requirements.

Chief Executive of the Advanced Propulsion Centre, Ian Constance said:

The new National Battery Manufacturing Development facility will be a national asset and the first of its kind open to all UK-located organisations. It will enable them to develop manufacturing processes for their concept-ready battery technologies at production rates appropriate to ‘giga’ factories.

The objective is that these processes can transfer to UK high-volume manufacturing facilities.

Jonathan Browning, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said:

This is excellent news on every level. We have worked very closely with our partners WMG and Coventry City Council with support from the West Midlands mayor and that joined-up approach not only maximised our effectiveness but sent a powerful message to Government.

We believe we are uniquely placed with our links between industry and academia to bring the National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility to fruition and it will give huge opportunities to local companies of all sizes and will continue our push to be world leader in advanced research and manufacturing, especially in the automotive and transport sector.

It will also further enhance our reputation as the Knowledge Capital of the UK in the field of engineering R&D.

Coventry City Councillor Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration and CWLEP board director, said:

Its brilliant news that Government has decided the country’s new National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility should be located here.

I’m glad the final decision has been made and of course I’m delighted that my home city will once again be at the cutting-edge of the automotive sector. For many years our city and region provided the innovation and skilled workforce to help the UK lead the world.

Car manufacturing provided a secure, well paid job for thousands of Coventry people, including me. And now battery development has the potential to do the same for a whole new generation of Coventry people.

I hope battery development will create thousands of new jobs and if there is one thing we know for certain, it’s that having a job changes lives. That’s the real reason this is such good news. And Coventry of course is the it’s the perfect choice. We have a rich heritage in motor vehicle manufacture and it’s only right that we will once again lead the way with this pioneering new technology.

Clean air vehicles and autonomous cars are the future and now the centre of excellence will be here right where it belongs. It’s the public sector, industry and education working together that has got us to this point today but now it’s time for the real work to begin.

Projects linked to the Midlands include:

The Open Flight Deck project, led by GE Aviation, will seek to overcome the barriers to adopting new technologies on the flight deck; traditionally difficult to do because of the high cost of change and certification. Open Flight Deck will be an open platform that allows the OEM to work with a range of suppliers to develop ‘apps’ – easier to build, quicker to deploy, and with the potential for upgrade as new capabilities become possible. The consortium behind the project, which has received a grant of £13.1 million, also includes BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Coventry University and the University of Southampton.

The DRAMA (Digital Reconfigurable Additive Manufacturing facilities for Aerospace) project is led by the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) with partners ATS Global, Autodesk, Granta Design, Midlands Aerospace Alliance, National Physics Laboratory, Renishaw and the University of Birmingham. DRAMA will establish leading additive manufacturing ‘test bed’ facilities for the aerospace industry and its supply chain at the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (based at the MTC in Coventry) and the Renishaw AM Solution Centre in Stone. The project will showcase the use of digital technologies to drive productivity and reliability in AM, leading to increased adoption of AM technologies by the aerospace sector and, in the long term, other industrial sectors. It will also deliver the world’s first digitally-twinned reconfigurable AM facility and establish the UK as a global leader in additive manufacturing technology. The project, part of the ATI programme, has received a grant of £11.2 million through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Project developing aerospace battery technology

The Zephyr Innovation Programme (ZIP) was created as a strategic R&D project to develop new cutting-edge component technologies to support Airbus’s Zephyr High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS). ZIP is led by Airbus in partnership with Axillium Research, Formtech Composites, Productiv, OXIS Energy, Newcastle University and Cranfield University. The grant of £3.6 million will support the development of key technologies in aerostructures, battery technology and energy storage, and propulsion that will enable flight performance improvements, expanding the operational capabilities of the next generation of Airbus Zephyr.

Government will look at bold options to improve consumer redress across the housing sector, the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid announced today (29 November 2017).

Speaking to an audience of housing professionals in London, the Communities Secretary set out his commitment to fixing the broken housing market and to build the homes the country not only needs – but the homes the country deserves.

Purchasing a home is one of life’s greatest financial investments, they are also the places we live our lives – it is vital that as housing supply increases, the quality of new build homes continues to improve.

Potential measures to address this issue could include introducing a single housing ombudsman to help provide more comprehensive redress for home owners, home buyers, tenants and landlords.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Since 2010 this government has delivered over 1.1 million homes – and last week’s Budget set out our ambitious plans to fix the broken housing market so we get more homes built in the places that people want to live.

But we don’t have to choose between building more and building better – we can do both. Homes are not only the biggest financial investment in our lives, but also provide security, and so it’s only right that developers and builders are held to a higher standard.

That’s why we are looking at bold options to improve redress in the New Year – including whether housing, like other sectors, should have a single ombudsman. This could help drive up standards across the whole industry and increase protections for consumers.

Currently, there are 4 government approved providers of redress that cover some aspects of home buying and renting, but not all. Membership of ombudsman schemes is compulsory for some groups, but not for others.

In the New Year, the government will consult with consumers and the industry, and look at options to explore how the overlap between responsibilities can be improve. This would help to avoid the confusion faced by consumers over where to seek help.

Last week’s Budget set out a range of measures to boost the housing market, including:

• £44 billion over the next 5 years in capital funding, loans and guarantees
• a new National House Building Fund, with more than £15 billion of new financial support over the next 5 years
• planning reforms to ensure more land is available for housing and maximise the potential of our cities and towns to build new homes whilst protecting the green belt
• raising the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap by a total of £1 billion in areas of high affordability pressure for local authorities who are ready to start building new homes

Taken together with the reforms in the housing white paper, published in February 2017, the Budget puts the government on track to raise housing supply to 300,000 a year on average by the mid-2020s.

In the white paper we set out our ambition for a housing market that works for everyone. We expect all housing developers to deliver good quality housing, to deliver it on time, and to treat house buyers fairly.

Further information

Read the full speech.

A full consultation will take place in the New Year to assess the current redress provision and seek views on how access to redress for consumers could be improved.