Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: industrial strategy

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-industrial-strategy/2010-to-2015-government-policy-industrial-strategy

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/using-industrial-strategy-to-help-the-uk-economy-and-business-compete-and-grow Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

Changes in the international economy mean an increase in both competition and opportunities from global markets. The government wants to enable UK businesses to compete and grow.

We are developing an industrial strategy; this is about setting out a long-term, whole of government approach to how we support business. This will give confidence now for investment and growth.

Actions

We will:

  • develop strategic partnerships with industry
  • support emerging technologies
  • improve access to finance for businesses
  • work with business to help develop skills that businesses will need
  • publish government contracts to provide confidence to business investment

Background

The industrial strategy builds on the government’s Plan for growth and the Growth review(PDF 617 Kb) which looked at how the government is addressing the barriers faced by industry.

The importance of an industrial strategy was also highlighted in Lord Heseltine’s report on UK competitiveness ‘No stone unturned’.

See the government’s industrial strategy publications including the ‘progress report’.

Analysis

We’ve published an analysis of industry sectors outlining the factors considered when we chose which industries to work with.

We have also published an analytical insights paper, drawing together the analysis that underpins the sector strategies, and a Growth Dashboard. This shows key growth performance indicators across themes such as the UK’s growth performance, growth ambitions, sector performance and Industrial Strategy, sub-national performance, and business performance. The Growth Dashboard will be updated every 6 months.

Appendix 1: improving access to finance for businesses

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

It is important that viable businesses can access affordable and appropriate finance.

The government has already:

We’re also setting up a Business Bank to address long-standing gaps in finance for small and mid-sized businesses.

We’ve allocated £1 billion of new government funding to the Business Bank to increase levels of private sector investment in business and encourage private sector solutions in this area.

Appendix 2: publishing government contracts to provide confidence to business investment

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The public sector spends £238 billion a year on goods and services. In November 2011, the government launched measures to use its purchasing power to deliver greater efficiency and support economic growth.

We will take a long-term strategic view of what we buy and how it improves the competitiveness of UK-based supply chains.

Making businesses more aware of opportunities

An important aspect of this is making businesses more aware of future procurement opportunities. As of May 2013, business had visibility of up to £79 billion potential procurement opportunities across 18 sectors enabling government to be more strategic and smarter in the way it does business. This data will be updated every 6 months.

For an up-to-date list of opportunities go to the Contracts Finder tool.

Working with businesses

We have been working with business to work out what capabilities (including skills, products and technologies) are needed in the supply chain.

An example of this working in practice is tunnelling. After assessing the demand for tunnelling engineering capability within the pipelines, we published a report on tunnelling in April 2012. The report identified skills, innovation and technology as 3 main areas where action was required to address the issues that were holding back procurement pipelines.

Industry has now committed to providing 450 tunnelling apprenticeships and Crossrail has launched a tunnelling academy to boost workforce skills in this area.

Capability assessments

In November 2012 we also published capability assessments on building information modelling (BIM) and renal care.

Appendix 3: working with business to help develop skills that businesses will need

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The government needs to develop the skills needed by business to support the growth of the economy.

We’ve already introduced the Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP), which allows employers to develop their own vocational training programmes.

This will give thousands of young people opportunities through apprenticeships and training.

Companies involved in the scheme’s first round got a share of £102 million of government funding and will be matched by a total of £108 million of private investment.

On top of the original £250 million for EOP an additional £90 million of funding was announced in the Autumn statement, bringing the total available to £340 million.

The deadline for the second round of bids to access these funds was 28 March 2013. 314 applications were received and the assessment stage finished in July. A total of 39 round 2 projects have been selected for grant negotiation or further development.

We’ve also:

Appendix 4: supporting emerging technologies

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The government supports investment in emerging technology where the UK has the relevant expertise.

Catapult centres

We’ve invested over £200 million through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to support a network of 7 catapult centres, soon to be expanded to 9.

These centres will help businesses to adopt, develop and exploit innovative products and technologies - the next stepping-stone on the journey to commercialisation.

Each catapult works in an area which the government has already identified as strategically important in global terms and where there is genuine potential for the UK to gain competitive advantage.

The 7 current catapult centres specialise in:

The 2 new catapult centres will specialise in:

  • energy systems
  • diagnostics for stratified medicine

Find out more about catapult centres.

Technologies

Technologies, and the research that supports their development, are a fundamental part of our approach to industrial strategy.

In January 2013 David Willetts announced how we’ll support the following 8 technologies:

  • big data: the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, equivalent to over 150,000 iPads worth of information, daily, with 90% of all information produced in the past 2 years. This data deluge will transform scientific enquiry and many industries too, the UK can lead in this and the energy-efficient computing revolution
  • satellites: both building satellites and analysing and using the data from satellites
  • robots and other autonomous systems: applications range from assisted living for disabled people to nuclear decommissioning
  • synthetic biology: engineering genes to help heal, feed and fuel the UK
  • regenerative medicine: new medical techniques for repairing and replacing damaged human tissue
  • agricultural technologies which can put the UK at the forefront of the next green revolution in sustainably increasing agricultural production
  • advanced materials: materials designed to have targeted properties will enable technological advances in sectors from aerospace to construction
  • energy storage: technologies which, like batteries, store energy when it is produced so that it can be used when it is needed. This will be one of the most important applications of advanced materials enabling the UK to gain from the global move to new energy sources

Read David Willetts’ speech on the 8 technologies.

Appendix 5: developing strategic partnerships with industry

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Industrial strategy provides support for all sectors of the economy. Government is developing long-term strategic partnerships with industry sectors where we can have the most impact on growth. See the links below for our 11 sector strategies:

UK sector analysis published in September 2012 set out the reasons for choosing these sectors. The industrial strategy sector infographics show why the sectors are important to the UK economy.

These partnership strategies:

  • are long term
  • are created with industry, committing business and government to specific actions
  • involve the whole of government
  • identify actions to benefit all businesses
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