25th October 2010  

  Last week at Westminster was dominated by the Spending Review, which sets out government spending plans from 2011 to 2015. Amongst some of the bad news, there was one piece of very good news for our area – £32 million of support for Agusta Westland to develop a civil helicopter programme in our area. Westland’s Managing Director, Graham Cole, and I had lobbied the Business Department over this issue a couple of months ago, and I was therefore absolutely delighted to see that this funding has been approved. Westland has long been famous for its military helicopters, but a major civil helicopter programme would be a new venture for Yeovil, and one which would help diversify business and therefore create more stability in orders and employment. This extra support reminds us that even after the cuts, the Government will still be spending a huge amount of public money...