Industrial Strategy

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

Steel is clearly a very important part of any industrial strategy, but I should make it absolutely clear to the noble Lord that this strategy is about the future and not just about incumbents. While there is an important future for steel, there is also the whole new world of digital technologies, which are also very important.

[Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield (CB)]

My Lords, when your Lordships’ House first debated the Green Paper on industrial strategy, I asked the Minister what were its magic ingredients that had eluded the framers of the previous nine industrial strategies since the Second World War. I wonder whether the consultation has shed any light so that he can give me a considered answer beyond the one that he gave me that day.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I fear that I may be giving the noble Lord almost the same answer, but there are two critical elements of the industrial strategy. One is technical skills, an area where, if we are honest, we admit that we have been struggling since the 1950s, and the second is to build on the extraordinary comparative advantage that we have in our universities.

Industrial Strategy Consultation

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield

Monday 23rd January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Lord is referring, I think, to the integration of supply chains, which have now become very global. Certainly, that is particularly true in areas such as satellite technology. Having easy ways of trading with other countries with non-tariff barriers is critical to that. Space technology is exactly the kind of industry that the UK should be fully a part of. It is interesting—you look around the world, and the USA is clearly leading in many of these areas, but if you look at other countries you often find that our technology is very strong. That is not to be complacent. Look at Israel, Switzerland, or Singapore—and look at Ireland, which has done a fantastic job in attracting many of the world’s best companies. If they can do it in southern Ireland, why can we not do it in Northern Ireland, or in the north-east, or the north-west?

[Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield (CB)]

I add my welcome to this, the ninth industrial strategy since I have been on this earth. In the debate on the Autumn Statement that we had before Christmas I suggested that we were waiting for the eighth, but the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, got in touch with me and said that I had forgotten his, for which I profoundly apologise. I read them all recently, in the build-up for this great day, and worries about productivity, which the Minister has stressed already, are at the heart of all of them. Can the Minister identify—in his own view, not a collective one—where the magic is in this Green Paper that was absent from all the others? What is there in this Green Paper that will bedazzle economic historians in the 2050s at the foresight the Government showed this day?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

That is a good question, and I am sure that the answer will emerge over the next three months of consultation. To be realistic, there is no magic in these things. If you look around the world at countries which have got their industrial strategy right, whether it is Germany and technical education, Singapore and advanced manufacturing, or Switzerland and advanced pharmaceuticals, I am not sure that there is any magic. It is a combination of great research, great technical skills, efficient capital markets and an efficient competition policy. Actually, the UK has not done that badly. Let us not do ourselves down too much. If you look at science, between Oxford, Cambridge and London it is fantastic—absolutely world-class—and we do world-class things in many parts of the UK. However, on the noble Lord’s point, we need to refine this industrial strategy over the next three months, and the six months until the White Paper comes out, so that we are absolutely clear about what really makes a difference. That takes us back to the objectives that the noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, mentioned earlier on. We must have very clear objectives.