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Key Announcements from the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy

  • Monday, June 23, 2025
  • Posted By The Growth Company

The newly released Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans will help to deliver certainty and stability for businesses and provide strategic direction for investment to help the nation increase productivity, strengthen economic security and reach its net zero goals.

This article highlights some of the initial key announcements. In particular, the Industrial Strategy includes several new announcements aimed at making it easier to invest in the IS-8* sectors:

  • 7,000+ businesses will have their electricity bills cut by up to 25% from 2027, with the Industrial Strategy aiming to tackle challenges around high electricity prices and long waits for grid connections. A new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour for over 7,000 electricity-intensive businesses in manufacturing sectors like automotive, aerospace and chemicals from 2027. The most energy-intensive firms will also be supported through further discounts on electricity network charges, while a new Connections Accelerator Service will aim to streamline grid access for major investment projects.

  • The Government will identify approaches for seizing global opportunities for UK businesses and protect them from global headwinds through its Trade and Industrial Strategies. Alongside this, the Government will push forward with trade negotiations and bring forward legislation to increase the maximum size of UK Export Finance’s financial portfolio. The Government's overseas network will also be refocused, with details to be announced in the Trade Strategy.

  • Interventions have been announced to help drive forward innovation across the high growth sectors. These include plans for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to increase support for the IS-8 by pivoting its programmes and budgets towards priorities set out in the Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans. Meanwhile, a new Sovereign AI Unit will be established within government backed by up to £500 million to “maximise the UK’s stake in frontier AI.”

  • The Government will capitalise on the value of data and to treat data as a modern economic, financial and social asset.The Government will develop and implement a data valuation framework by April 2026 to guide its approach to realising the value of data. Up to £12m will be invested into UK Data Sharing Initiatives from April 2026 and over £100 million of funding will support the establishment of a new National Data Library.

  • To enhance skills and access to talent, the Government will introduce short courses in England funded through the Growth and Skills Levy in several subject areas including digital, artificial intelligence and engineering. Skills initiatives moving forward are expected to be closely aligned to the Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans. From January 2027, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will be launched to enable individuals to learn, upskill and retrain across their working lives. Skills Bootcamps, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Free Courses for Jobs are all highlighted as schemes to support skills development in the IS-8 sectors.

  • Workforce Strategies will be developed for sectors facing shortages linked to skills, training, and where conditions in the UK cause concern. These strategies will be coordinated and published by relevant government departments working with industry, trade unions and local stakeholders. The Government will temporarily exempt occupations crucial to the delivery of the Industrial Strategy from the planned increase to the threshold for the Skilled Worker Visa. Efforts will also be focused on getting the brightest minds to relocate to the UK through setting up a new Global Talent Taskforce.

  • Infrastructure interventions include providing funding for 300 new planning officers and allowing new flexibilities for planning application fees to be set locally. A Nature Restoration Fund will save developers time and money in identifying and meeting environmental obligations related to protected sites and species.

  • £41 million will be spent on low-earth-orbit satellite connectivity to introduce improved WiFi connectivity on all mainline trains to help travellers be more productive.

  • A range of announcements made at the Spending Review related to local places will be taken forward as part of the Industrial Strategy, including the new Local Growth Fund. In addition, further announcements have been made including that the British Business Bank will appoint Cluster Champions in each nation to crowd-in private investment into high-potential projects in specific high-growth places.

Key to the new Industrial Strategy are the IS-8 sectors - a group of sectors which the Government has focused on for achieving future growth. The strategy identifies combined authorities, clusters and regions which will be key to driving future growth in these sectors.

Growth Flag will be sharing more over the coming weeks on the new strategy, the IS-8 Sectors and what it might mean for local places across the UK.

The new Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans can be found here.

*IS-8 sectors include advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, digital and technology, professional and business services, defence, financial services and life sciences.