Business Secretary is creating five new
business-focused groups to unleash Britain’s growth potential and
create jobs, as part of the Government’s plans to help the
economy bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beginning this week, Mr Sharma will chair the first meetings of
new ‘recovery roundtables’ bringing together businesses, business
representative groups and leading academics. They will consider
measures to support economic recovery and ensure we have the
right skills and opportunities in place for our workforce over
the next eighteen months.
They will also explore key domestic and global challenges to
support a green and resilient recovery and ensure the UK is at
the forefront of new and emerging industries.
Focused on five key themes, each group will explore how business
can work with government to deliver economic growth and jobs:
-
The Future of Industry: How to
accelerate business innovation and leverage private sector
investment in research and development
-
Green Recovery: How to capture
economic growth opportunities from the shift to net zero carbon
emissions
-
Backing new businesses: How to
make the UK the best place in the world to start and scale a
business
-
Increasing opportunity: How to
level up economic performance across the UK, including through
skills and apprenticeships
-
The UK open for business: How to
win and retain more high value investment for the UK
This initiative builds on the close engagement between the UK’s
business community, the Business Department and across Whitehall
as we have responded to the pandemic.
This includes five new ministerial-led taskforces
to develop further plans for how and when closed sectors can
safely reopen, following the publication of the Prime Minister’s
roadmap out of lockdown.
Secretary of State for Business commented:
“These roundtables are a redoubling of our efforts to listen to
and work with the business community and academic experts as we
consider the measures needed to support our economic bounce-back.
This will undoubtedly lead to a cleaner, greener, more resilient
economy which will create new jobs.
“The output from this initiative will feed directly into the
Government’s work on economic recovery and will help deliver the
commitments we made to the British people only last December,
which now take on an even greater sense of urgency and
importance.”
ENDS.
Notes to editors
- The membership of the five working groups will be published
in due course.
- Each working group, which aims to be representative of UK
industry, will consist of approximately 20- 25 participants and
will be chaired by BEIS Secretary of State .
There will also be an opportunity for other parties and
individuals interested in this initiative to share written
submissions with the Business Department.
