Last year, UK Prime Minister Theresa May revealed that Brexit will begin in March 2017. She has made it clear that her government will pursue hard Brexit, placing national sovereignty over freedom of movement. Recently, May released her Modern Industrial Strategy green paper, outlining how Whitehall will help businesses expand and boost economic progress, in a post-hard Brexit Britain.
Sector deals
The Modern Industrial Strategy is designed to “drive growth across the UK.” It lists ten “sector deals,” which will give UK firms the ability to “emerge and grow,” via investment in skills, start-ups and science. May said the paper will confront “underlying weaknesses to secure Britain’s future as a competitive, global nation.” Here are ten ways these proposals plan to achieve this aim.
- Advancing Skills: Whitehall will ensure “everyone has the basic skills needed in a modern economy.” It will achieve this by “building a new system of technical education to benefit the half of young people who do not go to university; boosting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills, digital skills and numeracy; and by raising skill levels.”
- Upgrading infrastructure: The paper argued: “We must upgrade our standards of performance on digital, energy, transport, water and flood defence infrastructure, and better align central government infrastructure investment with local growth priorities.”
- Enabling growth: The government said that it will aim to drive growth across the entire nation. They wrote: “We will create a framework to build on the particular strengths of different places and address factors that hold places back – whether it is investing in key infrastructure projects to encourage growth, increasing skill levels, or backing local innovation strengths.”
- Clean energy development: Whitehall revealed that it will increase efforts to deliver affordable energy and clean growth. Explaining, the paper said: “We need to keep costs down for businesses, and secure the economic benefits of the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
- Improving procurement: The paper said: “We must use strategic government procurement to drive innovation and enable the development of UK supply chains.” This means that Whitehall will make improving procurement a key tenant of its future economic strategy.
- Supporting firms: Giving companies the support they need to start and expand their operations will be a major priority for Whitehall, according to the paper. It argued: “We must ensure that businesses across the UK can access the finance and management skills they need to grow; and we must create the right conditions for companies to invest for the long term.”
- Strategic investment: The document suggested: “We must become a more innovative economy and do more to commercialise our world leading science base to drive growth across the UK.” This implies that Whitehall will raise investment in science, research and innovation.
- Boosting productivity: The Modern Industrial Strategy said that Whitehall will encourage trade and inward investment policy, in order to boost productivity. Expanding, it argued: “Government policy can help boost productivity and growth across our economy, including by increasing competition and helping to bring new ways of doing things to the UK.”
- Creating leading industries: A major aim for Whitehall, the Strategy implied, will be cultivating world-leading British industries. It said: “We must build on our areas of competitive advantage, and help new sectors to flourish, in many cases challenging existing institutions.”
- Bringing it together: The document made it clear that moving forward, the UK will develop the necessary institutions to bring key sectors and regions together. Expanding, it noted: “We will consider the best structures to support people, industries and places. In some places and sectors there may be missing institutions which we could create, or existing ones we could strengthen.” This includes everything from financial networks to trade associations.
Starting businesses
Speaking about the Strategy, May noted: “[It] will be underpinned by a new approach to government… stepping up to a new, active role that backs business and ensures more people in all corners of the country share in the benefits of its success.” Concurring UK Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said: “[This] must build on the UK’s strengths and extend excellence into the future… and ensure we are one of the most competitive places in the world to start and grow a business.
The Modern Industrial Strategy, therefore, indicates that the British government is committed to providing new businesses with the environment needed to thrive, post-hard Brexit. There’s never been a better time to establish a company in the UK, as you could benefit from the various business support measures listed in this paper. As a company registration agent, Turner Little’s team can supply you with the expertise needed in company creation matters, to start a lucrative venture in the UK.
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