LONDON BRIEFING:Vince Cable has promised he won't be waving the chequebook at car makers, writes FIONA WALSH

THERE WAS good news and bad news for the British car manufacturing industry this week: good news as the first Auris petrol-electric car rolled noiselessly off the Toyota production line in Derbyshire; bad news as the industry was given a clear warning that the days of state support are at an end.

Britain is the first country in Europe to mass produce a full hybrid car and the Toyota Auris has come at a crucial time for the automotive sector, still suffering the effects of the worst slump in demand in decades. It may also go some way to repairing Toyota’s battered reputation after its massive safety recalls last year.

The bulk of production at Toyota’s Burnaston plant in Derbyshire – around 14,000 vehicles this year, rising to 30,000 in 2011 – will be destined for sale outside the UK, a perfect example of the “export-led recovery” the new coalition government hopes will rescue the British economy.

New business secretary Vince Cable was banging the export drum at the Toyota launch on Monday, hailing the hybrid Auris, which runs on electric power at speeds up to 30mph but also has a traditional petrol engine, as the future of the industry, as well as an important step in Britain’s aim to become a leader in low-carbon technology.

But the former Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman put something of a damper on proceedings as he indicated there would be no more taxpayer handouts for the industry: “We don’t want to go around the country waving a chequebook,” he said. His comments will have particularly dismayed General Motors, which had been looking for a £300 million grant to produce the Ampera electric car at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside.

The Ampera is due to start production next year, creating several hundred new jobs and securing others, but Ellesmere Port is facing competition for the work from GM’s plant in Bochum, Germany. Britain is expected to be the largest European market for the Ampera and the Merseyside plant has the advantage of higher productivity than the German factory.

However, the absence of any government grants will be a significant negative when GM makes its final decision, expected early next year, on where its new electric car will be built. The cost-cutting coalition government is also expected to axe Labour’s plans to offer discounts of up to £5,000 to encourage consumers to switch to low-emission vehicles.

Cable will face the leading lights of the industry today when he speaks at an automotive conference in London. It won’t be the easiest of speeches to deliver, as he must signal support for the sector while making it clear the chequebook will remain firmly closed. It’s unlikely to be the last time the business secretary makes such a speech – his comments at the Toyota launch may have been made in reference to the motor industry but apply equally to other manufacturers.

THEY SAY bad figures always take longer to add up. This morning, economists in the City of London had been expecting the release of the latest official data on Britain’s economic growth. But, in an unprecedented and highly embarrassing move, the release of the final revision to first quarter GDP figures has been delayed for a fortnight after number-crunchers at the Office for National Statistics uncovered what they termed “potential errors” in the data.

The potential errors, spotted in the ONS’s annual check of the national accounts, further undermine the credibility of the government’s statistics department. Economists had expected today’s figures to be unchanged on the last revision, which put growth at 0.3 per cent in the three months to March. This was an upward revision on the initial estimate of 0.2 per cent.

Publication of all data relating to the UK’s national accounts has now been postponed until the middle of next month. That means a slew of figures will not now be released as planned, including the balance of payments and productivity and service data.

It also means that the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will not be able to include the final GDP data in its deliberations on interest rates next week, although apparently the bank governor, Mervyn King, believes the data to be of limited use at the best of times.

The bank is due to make its decision on rates on Thursday and the minutes of the June meeting, published last week, revealed a surprise split among the committee with one member, Andrew Sentence, wanting rates to rise.

Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardiannewspaper in London