3:43 pm, April 14, 2020
Ford of Britain boss Andy Barratt said he’ll lobby the government to support the industry in response to the coronavirus crisis.
‘This is the time to try and reach out as an industry to the government,’ he told Car Dealer Live yesterday.
‘They helped in 2008 and 2009 with a scrappage programme. Can BISE (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) help with a stimulus package for the industry as a whole now?’
He continued: ‘That’s a debate we’ll have through Mike Hawes (SMMT chief executive) and the SMMT on behalf of the whole industry.
‘We’re looking for whatever help and assistance on the basis of the amount of people that not only we employ as an industry, through suppliers and manufacturers, but the other side of that is there are many, many businesses that rely on our cars and commercial vehicles to keep their businesses running.’
[See highlights from the Car Dealer Live interview here]
Barratt explained on the Car Dealer Live broadcast – which you can watch in full below – that it was too early to say if a scrappage scheme was the right stimulus for the industry, but that ‘any stimulus we can get we’ll be looking for’.
He added: ‘I think we would look to support any scheme that the government would get behind. Is scrappage the right scheme? I don’t know. It might be too early to say.
‘The government is clearly not going to abandon its principals around air quality and their drive to green. If they can combine that with some stimulus then it’s something we would be looking to support.’
He added: ‘Whether it’s scrappage or another kind of support or incentive, that will be great. It’s way too early to speculate on whether we’ll even be successful in our lobbying.’
Ford is also the biggest supplier of commercial vehicles in the UK, and Barratt put the emphasis on how important a role these vehicles will play in the economy’s recovery.
He added: ‘Clearly we will work with whoever it needs to be in government to make sure the industry gets the right degree of stimulus.
‘It’s really important. We often talk about cars, but we need to make sure commercial vehicles are front of house as well because that is what will power the economy to recover.’
More: Ford boss says ‘lockdown means lockdown’
Watch the full interview with Andy Barratt below – and click here for our other Car Dealer Live interviews
