The Government has published its long-awaited Modern Industrial Strategy, setting out how it intends to support businesses in the years ahead.

As might be expected for a document that sets out the Government’s ambitions for the next 10 years across a range of industries, much of it is relatively general in its scope, although it has been accompanied by more detailed sector-specific plans for each of the eight so-called ‘frontier industries’ that the Government has identified as being central to its ambitions.

The eight frontier industries are:

• Advanced Manufacturing;
• Creative Industries (we discuss the sector specific plan here);
• Clean Energy Industries;
• Digital and Technologies (discussed in more detail here);
• Financial Services;
• Defence;
• Life Sciences; and
• Professional and Business Services

Under the Strategy, these eight high-growth industries will receive particular support from the Government in a range of ways, including greater access to finance, investment in regions where they are located, and initiatives to boost innovation and improve skills. The Strategy also focuses on the reduction of regulatory burdens, promising to “make the regulatory system more consistent and easier to navigate”, for example by merging or consolidating regulators where possible, streamlining duties, and updating the approach to economic regulation by the end of this year.

There is also a focus on the importance and value of data across all businesses, as the Strategy identifies the need to “treat data as a modern economic, financial, and social asset” and to “ensure that businesses, investors, and the public sector have the tools, infrastructure, and capabilities to unlock data’s financial, economic and societal benefits”. Equally, for those sectors that are ‘IP-rich’, the Government commits to working with the Intellectual Property Office to “explore how to help businesses raise debt finance secured on intangible assets”.

Finally, there is a commitment to create “an enduring partnership between business and a stronger, more capable, and more agile state, with far deeper penetration of business expertise and understanding of companies’ needs”. For example, the Strategy outlines plans to use the Government’s procurement power to strengthen domestic supply chains, to set up a new Business Growth Service to help support small and medium-sized businesses, and to “attract capital and build partnerships through active co-investment with industry”.

To read the Strategy in full, click here.