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GOVERNMENT NEWS - INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The strategy sets out how the government are building a Britain fit for the future – how they will help businesses create better, higher-paying jobs with investment in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future, We would like to make our members aware of this as their very own businesses continue to hopefully grow.
The stategy will boost productivity and earning power across the country by focusing on 5 foundations:
- ideas
- people
- infrastructure
- business environment
- places
This is a long term strategy; making changes now, but also looking to the future.
- 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 Greg Clark has said (27 November 2017) "launching 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."
Read ‘Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future’.
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.
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 Theresa May 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.