UK industrial strategy not just ‘smoking chimney stacks’, trade expert says

The UK’s industrial strategy is not just “smoking chimney stacks”, trade expert Marco Forgione has said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Monday that she would publish the long-awaited industrial strategy with business secretary Jonathan Reynolds within the next month.

And speaking to City A.M. after Reeves’ speech, Forgione, the director-general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade (CIE&IT) said the plan for the UK’s businesses should focus on more than manufacturing.

He said: “Vernacular is important… industrial strategy can conjure the idea of smoking chimney stacks. 

“That’s always part of it. The UK has an enviable position and recognition for its industrial manufacturing, but we are very much moving to a modern economy which is based on things like renewable energy, technology, high-value manufacturing, additive processing.”

Forgione stressed that the strategy must be “comprehensive” and “include the education system” as well as “comprehensive university provision”.

He added: “It is essential that we are attracting the brightest minds to the UK… and universities are at the heart of delivering that.

“We’ve got a challenge in the UK. We want to be a high-skill, high-value economy. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a university and education system which is delivering on that.”

The trade expert welcomed Reeves’ making “important points with regards to setting the trajectory… around investment to support businesses to have a foundation of growth, built on exports, and to have a long-term industrial strategy that is supported by a trade strategy”.

But he stressed firms are “particularly keen to hear, practically, what does that actually now mean”.

“What is the government going to do to support investment? How are they going to address taxation, and what are they going to do to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) to allow the UK business community to partner with government and grow the economy.”