One hears a great deal about invest ment grants for
Page 53
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
industry. Can you give me a brief summary of the topic as far as it concerns road transport?
AInvestment grants are provided for in the Industrial Development Act 1966. The grant scheme is administered by the Board of Trade who have published an explanatory booklet Investment Grants—A Guide for Industry.
Apart from application to computers, ships, and hovercraft, capital investment in commerce, distribution and other service trades does not meet investment grant requirements. Generally investment must be in qualifying industrial processes, which are defined as processes incidental to (a) manufacturing and ship repairing (b) mining and quarrying and other extraction and (c) construction.
Although vehicles do not normally qualify for grant the following specialized types of mobile plant and works vehicles are eligible:— (a) A vehicle constructed or adapted for the conveyance of a machine incorporated in or permanently attached to it and of no other load except articles used for the purposes of the machine; e.g. a mobile compressor, a mobile crane.
(b) A vehicle constructed or adapted for the conveyance or haulage of loads in or about private premises, including the site of building or civil engineering operations. e.g. a dumper, a forklift truck.
Under the definition at (a), most mobile machinery will qualify for grants. The definition at (b) enables certain specialized load-carrying vehicles, which are not suitable for use for general transport purposes, to qualify. It is the type of vehicle and not the particular use to which it is put which determines eligibility for grant.
Repair work investment is not eligible for the scheme unless it is in connection with one of the qualifying processes. Therefore grants for vehicle maintenance equipment are out. However, one or two processes of reconditioning may be regarded as substantial enough to constitute a manufacturing process and thus merit consideration. Tyre retreading is one process which has been so recognized, but on the other hand vehicle respraying has been turned down.
A separate scheme of grants towards capital investment to assist port modernization is administered by the Ministry of Transport, Ports B Division, St. Christopher House, Southwark Street, London, SE1. Such grants are available to harbour authorities and also to firms involved in loading and discharging sea-going ships, other than in the course of carrying on a qualifying industrial process already covered by the Board of Trade scheme.