There is lots to digest in the government's 10-year Industrial Strategy published today with more details coming in the sector plans but here are some key points we pulled out…

•It's great to see the Foundation Industries (FIs) specifically referenced throughout the strategy and a focus on place-based growth, allowing devolved authorities and business clusters the chance to have a greater say on the investments, innovation, strategies and skills that will boost their regional economies. And Glass Futures gets a mention highlighting the work being done in commercialising new technologies and supporting new material development of composites.

• Making electricity cheaper for the energy-intensive FIs and introducing specific educational routes such as launching Technical Excellence Colleges to address shortages in engineering could help address skills shortage in which in priority sectors including Advanced Manufacturing.

• The promotion of resource efficiency, with a new Circular Economy Strategy for England due to set out the government's approach to encouraging the re-use, repairing, and recycling of materials and products.

• A continued push towards net zero, clean energy, manufacturing and harnessing innovative technologies is welcome as is placing entrepreneurship and innovation at the heart of the UK's renewal.

• Recognising that access to funding is a major barrier to growth and commercialisation it's good to see a focus on easing the investor journey. The diagram on P52 highlights the commercialisation gap faced by entrepreneurs, start-ups and spinouts. Being able to navigate the funding journey for many from Innovate UK to the British Business Bank then on to the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance sounds a logical process if it works.

• Developing the UK's venture ecosystem by using public finance to encourage scale up funds to raise more capital should help build the long-term public-private partnerships we talked about in our roundtable https://bit.ly/FIVeIS

• Longer-term funding, another thing called for by industry, will be supported by 10-year R&D public funding cycles which should help build better partnerships between academia, entrepreneurs, scale-up centres and industry.

• The UK is the 5th most innovative economy in the world with a globally renowned IP system, but we know the barriers faced, not only include finance but regulations - something close to our heart at FIVe.

• The government has already announced changes to regulations and regulators but further moves to reduce regulatory burdens and admin costs by 25% by reducing the number of regulators and using the Regulatory Innovation Office could indeed help clear a path to market for innovative challenger technologies and products.

As always the devil is in the detail but it's good to finally have a published strategy to understand how government will align its many departments around this.

Read the full Strategy here https://bit.ly/IndStrat23

Published: 23-06-2025