In the next few weeks the UK is set to get a new national industrial strategy, its first in years. Insider's roundtable panel of experts looked at what it should contain.
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00:00Hi, I'm Kurt Jacobs, the editor of Midlands Business & Society, here at MacLachlan & Harvey.
00:14And I've held a fascinating roundtable, we've just finished, looking at the need for industrial
00:19strategy and how Britain becomes the industrial powerhouse it once was.
00:24We've looked at the importance of property, we've looked at the importance of infrastructure,
00:28of skills, the incentives that businesses need to get back up again.
00:33We've also looked at what the relationship between government and industry should be.
00:37Who should be driving this strategy?
00:38Who's responsible for it?
00:40Who has ownership?
00:42Let's speak to some of our panellists.
00:44So I'm Claire Robertson, Divisional Director at Drees & Summer.
00:47We need to see greater tax incentives by the government and stimulus so that people can
00:51invest in the UK and develop the advanced manufacturing sector.
00:55I'm Paul Mellon, I'm from the University of Warwick, WMG, I support SMEs.
01:01Now the real fear I have about the industrial strategy, it will leave the SMEs behind.
01:07SMEs are really important and there's a real opportunity to grow our way out of our current
01:12predicament, our rut, and SMEs are the way out of that.
01:17There's huge opportunities, huge agility, huge capabilities in our manufacturing SMEs
01:23and we need to harness that opportunity, harness our excellent R&D facilities and pull them
01:29together and really give them something to aim for and give us some ambition in the industrial
01:33strategy.
01:34Hi, I'm John Carlin, Regional Director from McLaughlin Harvey.
01:39What I want from a regional strategy is to have a level playing field, I want to have
01:45an alignment with an energy strategy and what I'm really concerned about is the cost of
01:51energy in the UK that is actually making an unstable economic base.
01:57Rachel Ede, UK Metals Council.
02:00I would like to see an industrial strategy that one, promotes manufacturing, the wealth
02:06of skill and capability we have in the UK and two, encompasses the viewpoints and the
02:14actions required up and down the supply chain from SME to primes and enables them all to
02:20grow and flourish.
02:21Hi, I'm Stacey Gobbe, Vice President of Economic Development, I work for Rolls-Royce.
02:26I think for us it's really important that the industrial strategy focuses on areas of
02:32strategic advantage and provides growth for the UK economy and certainly economic security.
02:40That absolutely for Rolls-Royce has to be aerospace and nuclear where we already have
02:44competitive advantage, an incredible history and already have sovereign capability in those areas.