On 14 October 2024, the DBT published a green paper entitled Invest 2035: The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. It introduces the idea of a 10-year plan to initiate the growth of 8 UK industrial sectors. Each of these 8 sectors will get its own dedicated Sector Plan (which will be broken further into subsectors). Across all Sector Plans, Government has identified 6 barriers that need to be unblocked to encourage growth.
8 “growth-driving” UK sectors:
1.Advanced Manufacturing
2.Clean Energy Industries
3.Creative Industries
4.Defence
5.Digital and Technologies
6.Financial Services
7.Life Sciences
8.Professional and Business Services
6 barriers need to be addressed:
1.People and skills
2.Innovation
3.Energy and infrastructure
4.Regulatory environment
5.Crowding in investment
6.International partnerships and trade
Each Sector Plan will be “place-specific” and revolve around city regions, clusters and strategic industrial sites (to be identified).
To execute on the above, Government will statutorily install a new independent body called the Industrial Strategy Council (ISC) and has designated an interim council in the meantime (called the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council).
Government will be holding numerous workshops and roundtables between now and Spiring 2025 (i.e. beyond the consultation deadline of 24 November). In Spring 2025, the full Industrial Strategy will be published including the 8 Sector Plans along with the multi-year Spending Review.
Our Empowering Energy Demand mission response centered around the importance of demand side response and how Government can encourage more uptake in flexibility, industrial electrification and other important industrial technologies (such as CHP).
Our Decarbonising British Heat mission response makes the case for the inclusion of heat networks as a sub-sector within clean heat, recognising the increasing importance of the sector as a driver for economic growth, regeneration, and decarbonisation.