The UK is set to get a new Industrial Strategy by the spring of 2025, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeve has said.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, being held in Liverpool, Reeve said the Industrial Strategy will be at the heart of the government’s mission to grow the economy, unlock investment and make every part of the UK better off.
The strategy will focus on delivering long-term change to the economy by making the country a clean energy superpower and accelerating the transition to net-zero.
Reeve said that a Green Paper will be published around the time of the Autumn Budget, due in October, which will outline the long-term sectoral growth and priority industries. Following consultation with business, the final strategy will be published in Spring 2025.
SCI has been calling for a new industrial strategy for the science and innovation sectors, followed research commissioned with LEK Consulting which estimated that the life sciences and clean technology sectors alone could generate an additional £230 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) and an additional 240,000 jobs by 2030 with more support. SCI published a Manifesto for an Industrial Science & Innovation Strategy calling on the government to adopt a comprehensive and detailed approach to drive growth and secure the nation’s economic future - including a new industrial strategy - in August 2023.
Earlier this year, three former UK government Business Ministers: Vince Cable, Greg Clark and Peter Mandelson gave evidence at a UK Business and Trade Committee hearing, stressing the importance of a cohesive industrial strategy that had long-term goals and was not subject to the electoral cycle. At that time Greg Clark, recently appointed SCI’s Chair of Board of Trustees, said: “An industrial strategy has to be for the long term. Since the financial crisis, productivity growth has been flat. There are long-term challenges which need long-term solutions. We have had an intermittent industrial policy over many years.”
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