The UK Government has today (23^rd June 2025) released its Modern Industrial Strategy.

A 10-year plan to increase business investment and grow the industries of the future in the UK, the Strategy covers 8 key sectors and aims to “make it quicker and easier for business to invest and will provide the certainty and stability needed for long-term investment decisions.”

Having reviewed it, our take (and hope) is that it will enable businesses seeking to streamline their production and manufacturing processes by speeding up and increasing productivity through investment, integration and implementation of automation machinery. This can be supported by access to R&D, skills training, funding and other such beneficial services.

The Executive Summary identifies that:

1. As an integral part of the growth mission, the Government will make it easier and simpler for companies to do business, giving them the stability to make long-term investments.

v) Drive 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. (Page 12)

3.

The Government is taking targeted action to transform our highest-potential sectors over the next decade through Sector Plans. As major initiatives we will:

i) Harness 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.

– 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. (Page 14)

4.

iv) Support small and medium-sized businesses with a new Business Growth Service to streamline access to government support, advice, and funding.

In concludes: “This is a very significant agenda, with considerable work to do not only by government, but the business community, local and national leaders across the UK, and trade unions. It is an approach to which the Government is fundamentally committed, as it seeks to place private business, entrepreneurship, and innovation at the heart of the UK’s renewal, and which will see it play a strategic, active role beyond supporting the fundamentals of rule of law and macroeconomic stability.” (Page 15)

The Introduction states:

“In an uncertain world, industry needs certainty to invest. Our strategy of stability, investment, and reform has already begun to address this and realise the full potential of all our sectors.” (Page 17)

Through the Industrial Strategy we will create a more dynamic economy that revives the UK’s success and grows the next generation of challenger British companies that can drive growth, support jobs of the future, and underpin our sovereignty. Our aim is to cultivate competitive markets and reduce barriers to entry across the UK. (Supporting our highest-potential sectors, Page 18)

Significant commitments with the ambition that by 2035:

The UK’s Advanced Manufacturing sector will achieve a near doubling of business investment to £39 billion per year. (Page 20)

Driving and supporting innovation (Page 54)

“The UK must be at the forefront of innovation if we want to build a high-growth, resilient economy that creates quality jobs and improves living standards. Innovation helps businesses become smarter and more efficient.”

“It creates competitive advantage for first movers who create novel products or are quickest to harness new technologies. And it gives the countries that nurture it more agency and leverage on the world stage. We must be a nation of inventors, entrepreneurs and tech adopters.”