-
Business Secretary launches flagship Industrial
Strategy for the UK today with a plan to boost the
economy, build on the country’s strengths and embrace
the opportunities of technological change
-
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will invest
£725 million in new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
programmes to capture the value of innovation
-
launch of the Industrial Strategy comes as
government announces it has secured a major strategic
investment into UK by world leading life sciences
company MSD
-
first ‘Sector Deals’ – construction, artificial
intelligence (AI), automotive and
life sciences – to help sectors grow and equip
businesses for future opportunities
-
4 ‘Grand Challenges’ which will take advantage
of global trends to put the UK at the forefront of the
industries of the future
Business Secretary has today (27 November
2017) launched the government’s ambitious Industrial
Strategy, setting out a long-term vision for how Britain
can build on its economic strengths, address its
productivity performance, embrace technological change
and boost the earning power of people across the UK.
With the aim of making the UK the world’s most innovative
nation by 2030, the government has committed to investing
a further £725 million over the next 3 years in
the Industrial
Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) to respond to
some of the greatest global challenges and the
opportunities faced by the UK. This will include £170
million to transform our construction sector and help
create affordable places to live and work that are safer,
healthier and use less energy, and up to £210 million to
improve early diagnosis of illnesses and develop
precision medicine for patients across the UK.
The government has previously committed £1
billion to the first wave of Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund projects, including investing £246
million in next generation battery technology and £86
million in robotics hubs across the UK.
Last week the Prime Minister announced an
ambition to increase the level of investment in research
and development (R&D), rising
from 1.7% to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. This
could mean around £80 billion of additional investment in
advanced technology in the next decade, helping to
transform whole sectors, create new industries, and
support innovation across the country.
The white paper also confirms government will be pressing
ahead with a series of Sector Deals,
with construction, life sciences, automotive
and AI the first to
benefit from these new strategic and long-term
partnerships with government, backed by private sector
co-investment. Work will continue with other sectors on
transformative sector deals.
Ahead of the signing of the Life Sciences Sector Deal,
due in the next few weeks, the government
has confirmed today
that world-leading life sciences company MSD is set to
make a major investment into the UK economy with the
opening of a new state-of-the-art UK hub, helping
ensure innovative research into future treatments for
patients and pioneering medicines are completed in
Britain.
The investment announced by MSD today will support a new
world-leading life sciences discovery research facility
in the UK, supporting 950 jobs.
Prime Minister said:
Our modern Industrial Strategy will shape a stronger
and fairer economy for decades to come. It will help
create the conditions where successful businesses can
emerge and grow, and support these businesses in
seizing the big opportunities of our time, such as
artificial intelligence and big data, whilst also
making sure our young people have the skills to take on
the high-paid, high-skilled jobs this creates.
As we leave the European Union and forge a new path for
ourselves, we need to focus on building a better future
for our country and all the people who live in it. With
the Budget last week, and our Industrial Strategy in
the years ahead, we will build a Britain fit for the
future.
In the strategy, the government has
identified 4 Grand
Challenges; global trends that will shape our rapidly
changing future and which the UK must embrace to ensure
we harness all the opportunities they bring. The 4 are:
- artificial intelligence – we will put the UK at the
forefront of the artificial intelligence and data
revolution
- clean growth – we will maximise the advantages for UK
industry from the global shift to clean growth
- ageing society – we will harness the power of
innovation to help meet the needs of an ageing society
- future of mobility – we will become a world leader in
the way people, goods and services move
Each Grand Challenge represents an open invitation to
business, academia and civil society to work and engage
with the government to innovate, develop new technologies
and ensure the UK seizes these global opportunities.
Business Secretary said:
The way we earn and live our lives as workers, citizens
and consumers is being transformed by new technologies.
The UK is well-placed to benefit from this new
industrial revolution and we start from a position of
significant strength. We have a thriving research and
science base and are home to a wide range of innovative
sectors, from advanced manufacturing and life sciences,
to fintech and creative industries.
The Industrial Strategy is an unashamedly ambitious
vision for the future of our country, laying out how we
tackle our productivity challenge, earn our way in the
future, and improve living standards across the
country.
The white paper follows extensive engagement by
government with industry, academia and business bodies
who submitted almost 2,000 responses to the green paper
consultation earlier in 2017.
The strategy unveiled today reflects this engagement,
with a new and unique partnership between government,
academia and industry, supported by policies that are
committed to making the UK economy more productive and
giving it a competitive edge in the future and abroad.
Five foundations
The white paper focuses on the 5 foundations of
productivity – ideas, people, infrastructure,
business environment and places – with a clear and
complementary vision for each.
Each foundation is supported by a range of policies
designed to provide businesses with certainty and
reassurance that the UK will continue to have a
competitive edge, including:
- raise total R&D investment
to 2.4% of GDP by 2027
- increase the rate of R&D tax credit
to 12%
- invest £725 million in new Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund programmes to capture the value of
innovation
People
- establish a technical education system that rivals
the best in the world to stand alongside our world-class
higher education system
- invest an additional £406 million in maths, digital
and technical education, helping to address the shortage
of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)
skills
- create a new National Retraining Scheme that supports
people to re-skill, beginning with a £64 million
investment for digital and construction training
Infrastructure
Places
- agree local industrial strategies that build on local
strengths and deliver on economic opportunities
- create a new transforming cities fund that will
provide £1.7 billion for intra-city transport; this will
fund projects that drive productivity by improving
connections within city regions
- provide £42 million to pilot a Teacher Development
Premium; this will test the impact of a £1,000 budget for
high-quality professional development for teachers
working in areas that have fallen behind
To ensure that the government is held to account on its
progress in meeting the ambitions set out in the
strategy, an Independent Industrial Strategy Council will
be launched in 2018 to make recommendations to government
on how it measures success.
Juergen Maier, CEO Siemens UK,
said:
By working in strong partnership with national and
local government, we have created a very positive
example of Industrial Strategy in action for the
off-shore wind industry in the Humber which is creating
a new and vibrant local economy.
Through today’s Industrial Strategy announcement we are
optimistic that through greater investment
in R&D, and
especially through the application of advanced
industrial digital technologies like AI and robotics,
we can support many more new and existing manufacturing
industries - raising productivity and creating
thousands of new highly skilled and well paid jobs.
Mike Cherry OBE,
National Chairman of Federation of Small Businesses,
said:
FSB has
been delighted to work with the Business Secretary
as he delivers this
government’s first Industrial Strategy. The UK’s 5.5
million small businesses have a huge role to play, if
we are to increase productivity across the economy, and
in every sector. This is the only way to achieve
sustained wage growth and higher living standards.
We particularly welcome the focus on improving
technical skills, new physical and digital
infrastructure and increased research and development.
Local industrial strategies and local investment such
as the new Strength in Places Fund are also very
welcome steps.
, Director
General of the Institute of Directors, said:
The Industrial Strategy identifies the key challenges
that the UK economy will need to overcome if businesses
are to remain competitive in an increasingly global
race. It also takes some important steps in starting
the flow of public investment to overcome these
hurdles. We hope it will become the cornerstone of a
long-term vision of post-Brexit Britain, one that
promotes innovation and the free flow of ideas.
It is particularly welcome to see how the government
has acknowledged the calls from industry to take a more
broad-based approach to addressing questions around
skills, infrastructure and research to support our
future economy. We hope this will continue as these
plans are taken forward.
Terry Scuoler, EEF Chief Executive, said:
The introduction of a new Industrial Strategy is key to
supporting efforts to improve productivity and invest
in not just current industries, but those of the future
which are set to radically change the ways in which
people live and work.
The white paper acts as a good foundation for a new
partnership with industry where government and business
can ensure consistency in policy thinking and
implementation to ensure the UK is world leader in
these new technologies.
And by introducing independent scrutiny of the progress
of these plans, the government is signalling that there
will be a strong focus on measuring delivery which
boardrooms will recognise and welcome.
Adam Marshall, BCC Director
General, said:
Chambers of Commerce have been working actively with
government to develop the Industrial Strategy, and we
are pleased that the concerns and ideas of business
communities across the country have been listened to.
Businesses will welcome the sense of mission that
infuses the Industrial Strategy, as well as its
assessment of the challenges and opportunities that the
UK faces, particularly as both businesses and
government look to forge a new path beyond the European
Union.
We have been clear that harnessing the potential of our
cities, towns and counties is crucial to make our
country more competitive and prosperous, and so chamber
business communities will cheer the focus on places to
boost productivity in local economies.
Over the coming months, it is crucial that the
government listens to the full range of business voices
when developing local and sector-based deals, so that
firms of all sizes and sectors can buy into the
Strategy for years to come.
, Chairman of the
National Infrastructure Commission, said:
A key part of securing long-term economic growth and
increased productivity will be to invest in our
infrastructure network – so I welcome that today’s
Industrial Strategy has this at its heart.
It is significant that the strategy has a clear focus
on developing new low-carbon technologies, but also
that the first sector deals are in construction as we
deliver major projects like HS2, and artificial
intelligence technology which could transform how we
operate and maintain our infrastructure.
These will be key considerations as we work to deliver
the country’s first-ever National Infrastructure
Assessment to tackle the 3 Cs of congestion, capacity
and carbon for the country’s long-term economic
benefit.
Mike Thompson, Chief Executive of the ABPI,
said:
The government’s Industrial Strategy is significantly
important in providing a long-term strategic roadmap
for UK business. As we navigate the challenges of
leaving the European Union, it is important we continue
to make the domestic landscape as attractive as
possible.
We now look forward to further detail on the sector
deals between the pharmaceutical industry and
government on the back of Sir ’s impressive Life
Sciences Industrial Strategy. These deals are just the
first steps but will be instrumental in securing the
future strength of the UK life sciences industry,
helping the UK economy prosper and allowing NHS
patients to get better and faster access to world-class
medicines discovered and developed here in Britain.
