The Prime Minister updated Cabinet on the success of yesterday’s
Global Investment Summit which secured more than £29.5 billion of
investment, tripling what we achieved at the last Government
Investment Summit in 2021. He said it was a great day for UK plc,
attracting more than 200 of the world’s leading CEOs and
investors such as Nissan and Microsoft – demonstrating a further
vote of confidence in the UK as a global destination for
business.
The Prime
Minister stressed the importance of strong engagement with
businesses creating jobs and wealth in this
country.
He then
turned to the agreement reached with medical unions on an offer
which would see an end to consultant strikes. He said it was a
fair deal for the public and for doctors and he thanked the
former and current health and social care secretaries for their
work.
Cabinet then
turned to a discussion of the Government’s plans for stronger
Research and Development coordination. The Prime Minister said
that in 2019 the UK lagged behind most OECD countries in terms of
R&D investment but that we were now on a par with Germany. He
said the Government was continuing to make the UK a more
attractive place to invest and grow a business with both full
expensing and the most generous tax system for research and
development in comparable countries.
The Science
and Technology Secretary highlighted recent work to focus R&D
spending on priority areas and to ensure every department could
easily see how the entirety of the £20 billion R&D budget was
being deployed across government. The Government’s Chief
Scientific Adviser highlighted the benefit of this investment and
said this was the first-time departments had such detailed
insight into the use of the funding.
The Prime
Minister concluded by thanking Cabinet for prioritising this
long-term focus on the critical technologies and investment which
will ensure a brighter future for the people of the UK.
