Industrial Strategy

On 23 June 2025, the government published its long-awaited Industrial Strategy.

Chambers of Commerce and other business organisations were consulted pre-publication. The British Chambers of Commerce has argued that the country needs an Industrial Strategy to help business understand government priorities, which sectors are considered to be the most important to help us achieve growth and generally to give confidence that there is a strategy on the back of which businesses and investors can make better plans and decisions.

This is what has now been announced. It is one element in a suite of strategies, including others covering infrastructure and trade which together form what the government believes will be the platform on which growth can be delivered. The strategy has a lot in it and is a mixture of relatively broad aspirations and quite specific actions. It is helpful that there is a commitment to monitoring and evaluating as the strategy is implemented and to making any necessary changes that may be needed.

Some quite clear features emerge: a focus on eight key sectors (known as the IS-8) and the importance of place, and specifically the role of Mayors and Combined Authorities.

In light of this we believe at Essex Chambers it is imperative that a Mayoral Authority is established in 2026 in Essex. An Essex ‘Plan for Growth’ should follow – and that will in effect be the Essex version of the key national strategies, including this one. Through the Greater Essex Business Board, on which the Chambers is represented, alongside several Chambers members, we shall seek to exert influence over the shape of the growth strategy for the county.

The full Industrial Strategy document runs to 160 pages but is summarised below:

Key priorities (with supporting actions, initiatives and means of delivery indented)

1. Make it easier and simpler for companies to do business, giving them the stability to make long- term investments, by:

• • Tackling high industrial electricity costs, ensuring strategic investment projects receive timely grid connections, investing in clean energy, and strengthening connections to the EU energy market.
  • Promoting free and fair trade through strong international partnerships, including securing new and improved trading arrangements with a pragmatic, agile, smart and fair approach to navigating a fragmented, geopolitically volatile, and tech-driven world.
  • Strengthening our economic security through an uplift in defence spending, international collaboration, strategic investments in critical supply chains, technologies, and energy security, and support to businesses in understanding and mitigating risks.
  • Expanding access to finance, building on the commercial expertise of the market through the British Business Bank (with increased capacity and capability, and £4 billion additional capital for the IS-8); expanding the mandate of the National Wealth Fund to deploy its £27.8 billion capitalisation to support growth; and bringing forward legislation to increase the maximum size of UK Export Finance’s financial portfolio.
  • Driving innovation, underpinned by an £86 billion investment into UK R&D, targeted towards the IS-8, leveraging private investment in cutting-edge research, technologies, and commercial applications.
  • Capitalising on the value of UK data by treating it as an economic asset, enabling the use of high-quality data across the private and public sectors, extending Smart Data initiatives into relevant Industrial Strategy sectors, and establishing a clear framework to value and license public sector data assets.
  • Enhancing skills and increasing access to talent by reforming the skills and employment support system to create a strong pipeline into the IS-8, with opportunities for good jobs across the country; an increase in technology training and boosts for engineering, digital, and defence skills; and a visa system and new Global Talent Taskforce that supports high-growth sectors and attracts talented individuals to the UK.
  • Reducing regulatory burdens and speeding innovation, cutting the administrative costs of regulation for business by 25%, reducing the number of regulators, using the Regulatory Innovation Office to clear the path to market for the latest innovative challenger products, and making specific changes for sectors to support business investment.
  • Removing planning barriers and giving backing to transformative infrastructure projects, including by fast-tracking decisions on critical projects in the planning system.
  • Ensuring the tax system supports growth and high-growth sectors, with the Corporate Tax Roadmap published at Autumn Budget 2024, having set out a commitment to cap the Corporate Tax Rate at 25% and maintain other key features, such as Full Expensing.

2. Enable investment and growth in city regions and clusters across the UK where the eight priority sectors (the IS-8) are based, by:

• • Proactively bringing forward more investible sites across the UK e.g. a new £600 million Strategic Sites Accelerator; coordinated support to attract investment into Industrial Strategy Zones (Investment Zones and Freeports); and new AI Growth Zones.
  • Strengthening local business environments across the UK with increased support for regional innovation (through the new £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund) and skills, while offering the expertise of the Office for Investment, National Wealth Fund, and British Business Bank to help places attract private investment.
  • Renew partnerships in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
  • Supporting Mayors and local authorities in England, including by working together on the delivery of 10-year Local Growth Plans and making a new £500 million Mayoral Recyclable Growth Fund available to invest in local growth projects.
  • Strengthening connections between and within city regions and clusters to ensure that more businesses are pulled into the orbit of the best UK talent, innovation, and academic collaboration, and more people have access to good jobs.

3. Transform our highest-potential sectors over the next decade, through Sector Plans, by taking targeted actions such as:

• • • Harnessing the latest technologies in the Advanced Manufacturing sector through £4.3 billion in funding, including up to £2.8 billion in R&D programmes over the next 5 years to spur innovation, automation, digitisation and commercialisation.
    • Driving the growth of the UK’s world-leading Creative Industries in clusters across the UK, including through a £150 million Creative Places Growth Fund, new financial support for screen, music, and video games, and a new Creative Content Exchange to be a trusted marketplace for selling, buying, licensing, and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets.
    • Making the UK one of the world’s top three Life Sciences economies through a package of reforms and investment, including up to £600 million for a Health Data Research Service to create the world’s most advanced, secure, and AI-ready health data platform.
    • Becoming a Clean Energy manufacturing and innovation superpower, producing the next generation of technologies to support the global transition, and delivering the Clean Energy Superpower Mission.
    • Delivering the Defence industrial base we need to protect our national security while unlocking the sector’s significant untapped potential for creating growth spill over benefits through innovation, exports, and scale-ups.
    • Nurturing the UK’s Digital and Technologies economy responsible for building our sovereign capability in the most strategically important areas, £670 million to drive the development and adoption of quantum computers in the UK, £500 million delivered through the Sovereign AI Unit, and a new programme of AI Growth Zones.
    • Increasing tech adoption and AI integration in the Professional and Business Services sector, including expansion of the Made Smarter scheme, as part of a package of £150 million to support the sector.
    • Maintaining and growing the UK as the world’s leading Financial Services hub, including by rebalancing to regulate for growth, cutting red tape for FinTech firms and driving forward initiatives to open up more private capital.
    • Strengthening the resilience of all the IS-8 by supporting the foundational industries and their supply chains which provide vital materials and parts, from steel to chemicals, or manage essential infrastructure, from ports to electricity networks.

4. Create an enduring partnership between business and a stronger, more capable, and more agile state, with far deeper penetration of business expertise and understanding of companies’ needs, by:

• • Attracting private capital and building partnerships through active co-investment with industry on shared priorities, using all our finance levers to de-risk opportunities, incentivise investment, and upskill the workforce.
  • Using government’s procurement power to strengthen domestic supply chains and support good quality local jobs, while shaping markets for innovation in the longer term.
  • Making it easier for industry to navigate government, speeding up investment decision-making and improving the interface with business through a high-calibre concierge service in the Office for Investment, a growth-focused international network, and a new approach to placements with industry.
  • Supporting small and medium-sized businesses with a new Business Growth Service to streamline access to government support, advice, and funding; initiatives to tackle the issue of late payments from large suppliers; and procurement reforms to make it easier to secure government contracts.
  • Establishing strong institutions to retain an unswerving focus on Industrial Strategy outcomes in policy-making and delivery, including through a permanent Industrial Strategy Council.
  • Continuously monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions and industry’s commitments, with clear metrics and the agility to take action if needed.

Please direct any comments or queries about the Industrial Strategy to our Head of Policy, Iain McNab.