£10m budget boost for Daresbury

THE Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury Laboratory, near Warrington, is to get a £10 million boost from Chancellor George Osborne’s budget.
Altogether, Mr Osborne announced capital funding of more than £20 million for STFC science
The announcement follows a recent visit to the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by the Minister for Science, David Willetts MP. The money is expected to help research in areas such as the computing industry and climate change as well as future security scanners.
Commenting on the announcement, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable said: “This investment is a real boost to our world class research base and space industry, and demonstrates further the Government’s commitment to science following the Spending Review and the ring fencing of the science budget.
“It will create new businesses and improve existing ones, attract highly skilled scientists and technicians, and become a focus for international investment.”
The £10 million will benefit the STFC Accelerator centre at Daresbury.
It will enable STFC to make important new capital investments in technologies and testing for next-generation science-driven accelerators, advanced ultra-sensitive security scanning techniques, and new medical accelerator developments. Much of this work will be in collaboration with private industry.
The funding will also enable design changes to be made to EMMA, a prototype accelerator, to make it suitable for hospital-based proton and other therapies.
STFC chief executive officer, Professor Keith Mason welcomed the announcement.
He said: “We welcome this investment in our scientific facilities and capabilities at the Daresbury and Harwell Science and Innovation Campuses which will help us promote blue skies thinking and economic recovery.”
*Nick Bent, Labour spokesman in Warrington South, said: “Extra funding for Daresbury is welcome but this Tory-led Government is cutting the UK science budget by over 10 per cent in real terms and Warrington is still significantly worse off than it was under Labour because Cameron and Clegg scrapped 500 jobs at the North West Development Agency and cancelled £80 million of investment in our schools.”
*Pressure group Retailers Against VAT Avoidance Schemes (RAVAS) gave a cautious welcome to a budget commitment to curb abuse of Low Value Consignment Relief from the Channel Islands but called for urgent action to follow the words.
*Jan McDermott, president of Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants, said:
“The question businesses will be asking is whether or not the budget will reverse a worrying trend of declining confidence and a faltering economic recovery. In the drive to deliver short term growth, we cannot put at risk long term sustainable prosperity.”
*The Forum of Private Business said the budgets small business growth strategy was “just a first step.”
But they believed substantial measures on fuel duty – including an immediate cut from 6pm last night and cancelling annual rises resulting from the fuel duty escalator, should provide some cash flow relief for struggling small firms.