Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has welcomed a £100m deal for 600 brand new state-of-the-art British built buses.
The agreement between National Express and Alexander Dennis will support 2,000 British jobs at the bus builders’ Scarborough, Surrey and Falkirk sites.
Gavin, who secured and spoke in a debate this week on the UK automotive industry, iscalling on other West Midlands companies to follow suit and buy British.
The 600 vehicles, a mix of double deck and smaller midi buses, will be built by Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) and will support over 2,000 British jobs. Every vehicle ordered will secure a British worker’s job for a year.
The new vehicles will be equipped with the latest customer comfort technology, environmentally friendly low emissions engines as well as state-of the-art high definition CCTV.
Gavin said: “This is an example of what a great British company should be doing. Supporting British manufacturing, securing jobs and signing deals that give British companies security is vital to our economic growth. I urge other companies to follow National Express West Midlands lead.”
Peter Coates, Managing Director of National Express UK Bus, said: “This deal will ensure the £100m invested on improvements to our services over the coming years will not just benefit our customers, who will have great new buses, but will also give the British economy a big boost.
“The new buses will offer our customers a state-of-the-art, comfortable and environmentally friendly journey. We cannot wait to introduce these vehicles to the roads of the West Midlands later in the year.”
Colin Robertson, Chief Executive of ADL, added: “We are absolutely delighted to take our business relationship with National Express to a new level. Long term contracts of this nature underpin manufacturing programmes and contribute to job security. They make so much sense, giving all parties a clear profile of expectations and financials. My instinct is that we will see more ‘partnerships’ like this in the years ahead.”