UK Government Industrial Strategy: Invest 2035

The Strategy aims to address obstacles hindering growth in key sectors and regions with the greatest potential to drive economic expansion. It will aim to foster increased investment and deliver jobs across the UK, not just London and the Southeast.

In the Green Paper, the Government announced eight sectors to focus on as they offer the highest growth opportunity for the UK. They are advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, creative industries, defence, digital and technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services. 

The Green Paper launched a consultation, led by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which ran into November 2024. The final Industrial Strategy is due to be released later in the year and Loughborough University will continue to engage with DBT and other Government advisers through the first few months of 2025 to inform the development of the Industrial Strategy further.

Loughborough University expertise

Loughborough University has a range of research expertise, in Schools across the University, in areas relating to the Industrial Strategy and a group has been convened by the Policy Unit to bring this research and expertise together and engage with Government to inform the Strategy as it develops. This Group convenes every six weeks. Several researchers made formal submissions in response to the Green Paper consultation which covered a broad range of themes.

Themes emerging 

Themes emerging from the responses submitted by Loughborough colleagues include:

Access to a skilled workforce is vital

Many businesses lack access to the specialised skills and workers essential for scaling, particularly in technology, healthcare, and renewable energy. Without an accessible, skilled workforce, companies face severe constraints in expanding their operations. Accessing skilled labour is required for the industrial strategy to succeed, and therefore this needs to be factored into immigration policies. 

Furthermore, the skills system needs to play its part. Expanding access to vocational training and apprenticeships in high value-added sectors, tax breaks or subsidies for in-house training can help businesses access the skills they require. Efforts to reduce economic inactivity can also play an important role. For example, more flexibility on work and support for those with health issues could reduce inactivity in a population with ageing and health problems, as could a cultural shift towards lifelong learning.

Access to finance is a problem

A lack of access to finance is holding UK businesses back, with banks in particular having a very risk averse approach to lending. This prevents businesses from investing to grow or even being set up in the first place, and the Government must address this. They can also help investors and businesses that are seeking finance to find one another, particularly outside London and the South East and other major centres. High growth programmes no longer exist which in the past sign posted businesses to the knowledge and connections required, so re-establishing these could play a role.

Regulation and planning are stifling investment

Regulatory reforms and the speeding up of planning permission are essential to attracting investment. Many businesses, when they find investment opportunities, are not clear which government or local body to talk to about investment support or incentives. As a result, lots of businesses are looking to invest in other countries instead. Access to the right information can speed this whole process up.

A more streamlined process, from accessing the correct information and guidance, through to the time taken for planning permission to be granted, can help drive investment.

Opportunities for convergence of sectors

The identification of the eight growth driving sectors is welcome. It is, however, increasingly important to account for sectoral convergence, particularly where innovation and emerging technologies within these sectors are rapidly transforming established sectoral boundaries. Recognising such convergence and the augmentation of sectoral groupings could drive the industrial strategy in action, enabling a mission-driven and challenge-led approach that combines UK strengths across multiple areas. This would also encourage cross-sectoral collaboration, accelerate growth and enable subsequent spillover benefits and opportunities.

Science parks can play a role

Science parks and start-up hubs, such as LUSEP on Loughborough University, can play an important role in the Industrial Strategy. They can provide access to incubators, provide finance and offer business support to start-ups that have spun out of university research. There is very limited access to science parks in regions across the UK and the Government should consider supporting the development of more.

Learning from abroad

There are lots of examples from overseas of elements of an Industrial Strategy that the Government could learn from. For example, the start-up culture in Israel, the union-worker agreements in Germany, technological developments in Singapore and the robotics industry in Japan are all world-leading and the Government should develop an understanding of these and adopt lessons from them.

Loughborough University colleagues’ contributions were wide-ranging, but we have attempted to categorise the researchers to the key growth sectors outlined in the strategy. Each colleague has a bio describing their research in greater detail.

Key research contacts

Creative Industries

Professor Graham Hitchen, Professor within the Institute for Creative Futures and Director of Policy Unit

Professor Andrew Chitty, Professor of Creative Industries

Dr Vicki Williams, Policy and Partnerships Manager (Creative Technologies)

Professor Mario Minichiello, Professor of Design for Human Behaviour

Advanced manufacturing and clean energy industries

Professor Shahin Rahimifard, Professor of Sustainable Engineering

Professor Anish Roy, Professor of Mechanics of Materials and Processes and Associate Dean of Research & Innovation

Professor Sergio Cavalaro, Professor of Infrastructure Systems

Professor Sergey Saveliev, Professor of Theoretical Physics

Professional and business services

Dr John Weightman, Partnership Development Manager (Town Deal)

Dr Martin Sykora, Reader in Information Management, Head of Information Management Group

Financial services

Professor Alistair Milne, Professor of Financial Economics

Professor Gerhard Schnyder, Professor of International Management and Political Economy

Dr Huw Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Economics with research expertise on trade and productivity

Dr Thomas Triebs, Lecturer in Economics

Dr Bai Xue, Lecturer in Accounting

Energy and Net Zero

Dr Kathryn North, Director of C-DICE and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Climate Change and Net Zero

Professor Dani Strickland, Professor of Electrical Power Engineering