Tony Hague, CEO at PP Control & AutomationBusiness leaders from around the UK have welcomed the Government’s long-awaited modern Industrial Strategy released earlier today. The Strategy is a 10-year plan to promote business investment and growth and make it quicker, easier and cheaper to do business in the UK. The plan focuses on key sectors where the UK is already strong and there is potential for faster growth, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, clean energy, defence and digital technologies.
Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the
CBI, said: “The Government has set out a credible, long-term Industrial Strategy, which focuses on the areas of the economy where the UK can genuinely compete and win global market share. This sends a clear and positive signal — not just about the UK's economic ambitions but also about the country's global position and direction of travel for the next decade and beyond.
“The CBI has long been advocating for a comprehensive industrial strategy, based on the UK's USP - the sectors and markets where we can compete to win on the global stage. Firms will welcome the acknowledgement of the integral role of foundational sectors in delivering growth and the strategy's objectives. To ensure success, investors need to see the right conditions in place for the Industrial Strategy to truly deliver - and nothing matters more than competitive energy prices for our core industries and growth sectors, plus easier access to the talent they need to thrive.”
The Government also announced a package of measures alongside the Industrial Strategy to support firms, including: tackling uncompetitive electricity prices for energy hungry businesses to ensure UK industries can compete with the rest of Europe; putting clean energy industries at the heart of the UK's growth strategy, with support to develop networks and UK supply chains; and making it easier for employers to access and attract the skilled workforce needed to grow, including additional investment in upskilling and levy flexibility for much needed skills boosts in areas such as digital.
Competitiveness and growthRain Newton-Smith added: “The ambition is there. The direction of travel is right. But delivery is everything. Business leaders across the UK will roll up their sleeves to deliver this strategy, at pace, to achieve our shared purpose of raising living standards across the country with an eagle-eye on our overall competitiveness and growth.”
Stephen Phipson, CEO of
Make UK, said: “Today is one of the most important days for British industry in a generation. In launching the modern Industrial Strategy white paper, Jonathan Reynolds has demonstrated the Government’s commitment to honour its promises and tackle the major structural problems that have blighted UK manufacturing for so long and we congratulate him for doing so.
“Make UK has led the campaign for a new industrial strategy for many years, highlighting the three major challenges that were diminishing our competitiveness, hampering growth and frustrating productivity gains: a skills crisis, crippling energy costs and, an inability to access capital for new British innovators.
“The Government has listened and the Secretary of State has acted decisively with a joined up strategy which reflects a wider commitment from the Prime Minister and Cabinet alike. The strategy announced today sets out comprehensive and well funded plans to address all three of these structural failings. Clearly there is much to do as we move towards implementation but, this will send a message across the country and around the world that Britain is back in business.”
Mike Hawes,
SMMT chief executive, commented: “The publication of an Industrial Strategy – one with automotive at its heart – is the policy framework the sector has long-sought and the Government has now addressed. Such a strategy – long-term, aligned to a trade strategy and supported by all of the Government – is the basis on which the UK automotive sector can regain its global competitiveness.
“Making the UK the best place to invest now depends on implementation, and implementation at pace, because investment decisions are being made now against a backdrop of fierce competition and geopolitical uncertainty. The number one priority must be addressing the UK’s high cost of energy, enabling the sector to invest in the technologies, the products and the people that will give the UK its competitive edge.”
Pivotal step for the UKKatherine Bennett CBE, CEO of the
High Value Manufacturing Catapult, said: “The publication of the modern Industrial Strategy is a pivotal step towards transforming the UK into an industrial powerhouse. The High Value Manufacturing Catapult has a proven track record of turning policy into progress, investing more than £1 billion in a nationwide network of research and development facilities.
“From the
University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre’s 20-year collaboration with
Boeing that convinced it to build its first European manufacturing facility in Sheffield, driving economic growth and employment in the region to CPI, where the collaboration with pioneering British deep-tech company
DEScycle helped unlock private investment for its groundbreaking e-waste recycling technology, we have a proven track record of turning visionary ideas into real-world impact.
“We now have the opportunity to go further and faster, scaling our impact in the regions in which we operate and deepening our commitment to driving national economic growth. As partners to the Government we have helped shape the strategy and the advanced manufacturing sector plan. We now look forward to supporting delivery to ensure the UK has the people, the places and the potential to be a ‘net zero’ manufacturing superpower.”
Beatrice Barleon, head of policy and public affairs at
EngineeringUK, said: “The Government’s ambitious plans for the economy should go some way to creating certainty for businesses across the UK. We hope that this certainty will in turn support employers’ confidence in investing in skills.
“We welcome the acknowledgement that the success of the Industrial Strategy relies on the UK having a skilled workforce. We are particularly pleased with the recognition of the important role engineering and tech skills have in underpinning multiple sectors. It is vital that the Government links sector plans into a wider engineering & technology workforce strategy and avoids silo thinking. We are also pleased to see recognition of the importance of gender equity and diversity in the workforce more generally throughout the strategy. Addressing this imbalance will be vital to achieving the ambitions set out.
Creating opportunitiesShe continued: “We welcome the commitment for Government, and Skills England, to collaborate regionally and across devolved nations and will look to work with Government to support this effort. We look forward to working with Government on how to take the strategy forward, for example, how we create more opportunities for 16 to 19-year-olds, and how the Government can reach 1 million students across every secondary school in the UK and ensure they are offered the chance to learn about technology and gain access to new skills training and career opportunities by 2029.”
Tony Hague, CEO at West Midlands-based
PP Control & Automation, added: “We have waited decades for it and, finally, the Government’s Industrial Strategy has been published. At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything new, exciting or ‘immediate’ in there, with the majority of the much-publicised energy savings not actually coming into play for two years – and only after more consultation.
“I would have liked to have seen more bolder plans and the reintroduction of the Manufacturing Advisory Service or something similar, which delivered lots and lots of targeted support to SMEs that made an instant and long-term impact. But let’s look at the positives. I suppose it is a start and the fact it is a 10-year plan gives a bit of added certainty to our sector, unless Labour’s tenure in Whitehall is short-lived and this strategy is ripped up in the spirit of political posturing.”
He concluded: “It is good to see Advanced Manufacturing as one of its core sector plans and, finally, it looks like we have woken up to the importance of investing in automation and robotics. This new technology makes us quicker, makes us smarter and doesn’t replace jobs – if anything it has the opposite impact. I desperately want to believe that the Government has finally understood what is required to help make UK manufacturing truly competitive again. We are not after handouts, just a level playing field so we can take on the rest of the world by playing to our strengths — time will tell.”