UK Modern Industrial Strategy

Lord Lamont of Lerwick Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that. It is absolutely right. Let us try to recap. When was the last industrial strategy published? It was some eight years ago, in 2017. Since then, we have had several Conservative Administrations, several Prime Ministers, several Secretaries of State for Business and all that. This industrial strategy is needed now because we are in a pretty unstable global trading environment. Businesses want certainty and stability, and this is what this Government are offering them. They also want a long-term plan and for us, the Government, to stick to our guns. The UK’s world-leading capabilities, pragmatism and clear policy direction make us a prime destination for international businesses. We are attracting investment to this country. Amazon announcing a £40 billion investment last week shows that it has confidence in this Government and in our industrial strategy.

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, over the years, Governments have introduced their industrial strategies—I remember the industrial strategy of the Callaghan Government—but I think sometimes they think that they have found a policy when they have simply found a phrase. Industrial strategies in the past have tended to lead to a lot of different funding pots and opportunity for lobbyists. The Minister used the phrase “crowding in”. Crowding in sounds wonderful, but are the Government or the agencies that administer the industrial policy going to avoid two dangers: first, that by combining public money with private money, they are merely subsidising investment that would have happened anyway, and, secondly, if they are subsidising that investment, that it is not a poor investment and that the risk is being taken out of it? How are they going to be able to avoid those two dangers that have plagued industrial strategy in the past?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the Lord for that question. He makes several very interesting observations. The reason we have published this industrial strategy is what I mentioned earlier about the global trading environment, but we also have a very clear goal. We want to drive growth. I know many noble Lords have mentioned it, but it is still the number one mission of this Government, and we can achieve that only by better and increased investment. The noble Lord is right. Previous Governments have published investment strategies, but why is this investment strategy different? Past growth plans have often been felt by businesses as being done for them, so it looks as though government knows better and this is what the industrial strategy is for, whereas with this industrial strategy, we work with businesses every step of the way. We have meetings with business representative organisations—in fact, I have learned a new word, “BROs”; we work with trade unions and investors so that this strategy is not only a government strategy but a whole-of-business strategy. That is the first difference. The second difference is that we have listened to the needs of businesses, the need for long-term certainty. Every business that I have spoken to wants three things: certainty, stability and less regulation. That is what the Government are trying to solve through their strategy to reduce regulation by 25%. This is still very much a work in progress, but it is what we are aiming for. We hope that this strategy is different from previous strategies.