Autumn Statement: £18 million funding for Shropshire agri-tech centre announced
The government is to provide £18 million for a new agricultural technology centre based in Shropshire, Chancellor George Osborne confirmed this afternoon.
Mr Osborne revealed the plans for the spending during his Autumn Statement in the Commons.
It will be one of four agri-tech centres and will be used to develop new technologies to "increase the productivity and sustainability of UK agriculture".
Details are expected shortly about the precise location of the new centre, which will be aimed at developing new technologies for the farming industry.
There has been talk in the past about such a facility at Harper Adams University in Newport.
Mr Osborne also announced he is to scrap planned cuts to tax credits for millions of low paid workers.
Unveiling his Spending Review the Chancellor said he could abandon the controversial cuts of £4.4 billion due to improvements in public finances.
He said he would still be able to deliver the promised £12 billion in welfare cuts over the next five years while balancing the books by the end of the Parliament.
To Tory cheers, he told the Commons: "I've had representations that these changes to tax credits should be phased in.
"I've listened to the concerns. I hear and understand them.
And because I've been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether."
The surprise announcement came after the House of Lords threw out the original proposal for £4.4 billion of reductions to tax credits from April next year.
There had been speculation Mr Osborne would phase the cuts in instead.
Scrapping them altogether will be welcomed by many Tory backbenchers who were uneasy with the plans.
The Chancellor said his Spending Review was designed to make Britain "the most prosperous and secure of all the major nations of the world".
He said Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts showed GDP growing "robustly every year", living standards rising and more than one million extra jobs being created over five years.
The OBR had also certified that the Government's economic plan will deliver on the commitment to reach a surplus by 2019/20 and reduce the debt to GDP ratio every year of this Parliament.
Mr Osborne said the outlook had been boosted by the combined effects of better tax receipts and lower debt interest, creating a £27 billion improvement in public finances compared to the July Budget.
