UNCERTAINTY over jobs at the Honda plant in Swindon has put Wiltshire on a fast track plan to grow and improve industry in the area.

A central government scheme is set to be completed ahead of schedule because of the car firm’s announcement it will shut its plant by 2022, together with the Novichok incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury last year.

The Local Industrial Strategy will now be ready before Christmas, instead the of March deadline for the rest of the country.

Approving a draft plan of the Wiltshire version, Philip Whitehead, leader of Wiltshire Council said: “Swindon and Wiltshire LEP has been asked by government to accelerate provision of the local industrial strategy. It was due in March next year but will now be accelerated. Primarily this will then allow funding to be enabled in certain parts to alleviate the potential impacts of Honda. There are certain aspects we are not happy with currently but we need to approve this draft to allow it to be delivered in time and enable things to happen.”

Paddy Bradley, SWLEP director said: “The government wants to ensure we have a clear strategic direction in place given the context of the Honda announcement and recent events in Salisbury and Amesbury.

“It will set the direction of travel for our economic development over the next 10-15 years and focus on sustainable and inclusive growth across our communities.” It will also look at how research and innovation, skills development, business support and infrastructure improvements can contribute to achieving this. All of this together is expected to ultimately contribute to the national aim of addressing the UK’s poorer productivity performance compared to our international peers and competitors.”