The New Industrial Strategy for British Business

The Prime Minister launched her New Industrial Strategy for Britain yesterday, with the stated aim that it is part of "...a plan to shape a new future for the kind of country we will be when we have left. It is a plan to build a stronger, fairer Britain that works for everyone, not just the privileged few." This is part of Theresa May's objective that the post-Brexit economy will be "... a stronger economy and a fairer society".

A key part of the strategy for achieving this objective is the approach to supporting industry in the UK, and this is of vital interest to our Business students. While the exams this summer will have been written before this strategy was published, the top students will be aware of what is proposed, and be able to comment on how it might impact on specific businesses they are examining. So here are the key points, summarised by the EEF (Engineering Employers Federation), who aim to be the voice of UK manufacturing and engineering:

To add some detail to this summary, I would recommend the Summary pages of the Green Paper itself, with background on pages 9-14, and then a short section on each of the ten pillars of the strategy on pages 15-23. And to put the issue into the context of just how manufacturing fits into the economy of rich countries like the UK or US, I would also recommend Tom White's excellent summary on the Economics Blog of an article in last week's Economist. This emphasises the role of the higher value-added jobs such as R&D, design, supply-chain management, aftercare and servicing which support the lower value jobs in manufacturing itself, and which might be seen as the key focus of the government's strategy.