Money for cars and Mars

ELECTRIC cars and a £6bn research drive were at the heart of the Chancellor’s science agenda in the Autumn Statement.

Some £15m will be used to provide a nationwide network of charging points for electric cars, to help Britain hit its selfimposed climate targets.

The Government also volunteered £25m to help develop a new generation of green cars. It hopes to attract similar investment from industry.

Part of the science drive involves setting up a research facility called the Alan Turing Centre to investigate ‘big data’.

But, in a major blow to Bletchley Park where Turing – played by Benedict Cumberbatch, pictured, in the recent film The Imitation Game – and the code-breakers were based during the Second World War, it will be in London.

The original site was chosen for its location directly between Oxford and Cambridge, allowing it to pick the brightest minds. The new £42m centre will be in the British Library. George Osborne also announced a £5.9bn investment into research through a Grand Challenges fund. He said: ‘Scientific advance is a human endeavour worthy of support in its own right. It is also crucial to our economic future.’ Schemes set to receive the money include £31m towards new energy security and innovation centres, and £20m towards an anti-ageing centre in Newcastle. There is £235m for a research centre in Manchester, called the Sir Henry Royce Institute after the co-founder of Rolls-Royce.

There is also £95m to help Britain take the lead in the next European mission to Mars.