OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2015. The Spending Review and Autumn Statement delivers on the government’s priority to provide security to working people at every stage of their lives. It sets out a 4 year plan to fix the public finances, return the country to surplus and run a healthy economy that starts to pay down the debt. By ensuring Britain’s long term economic security, the government is able to spend £4 trillion on its priorities over the next 4 years.

Helping business to compete on the world stage is a key part of our long-term economic plan. The government’s actions thus far have helped make us the number one destination in Europe for Foreign Direct Investment and grown our total exports to China five-fold since 2003.

But the job is not done. That is why we will be spending £1.2 billion over the next 4 years, refocusing UKTI to provide our companies with a world class export and investment promotion agency. This will enhance direct support to business and develop the private sector market. The government will support this through £175 million reinvestment between 2016-17 and 2019-20.

£ million 2015-16 baseline 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
Resource DEL [1] 299 307 293 277 277

[1] In this table, Resource DEL excludes depreciation

This settlement provides £27 million funding to land up to a billion pounds of export and inward investment deals for local companies in the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine. It also provides £24 million digital transformation funding to simplify UK trade support online and join up effectively with other government services.

Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Maude, said:

To boost the UK’s export performance, we must drive up both the number of exporters and the value of exports, and prioritise government effort on the markets and opportunities that will add greatest value. A new digital infrastructure will help UKTI provide more impactful, cost effective access to export services. This, together with enhanced direct support to business, and an invigorated private sector marketplace, will see us increase UK businesses’ ability to take full advantage of opportunities abroad.