Running out of battery: how post-Brexit Britain is failing to set up a future-focused economy

‘It doesn’t help that the UK’s industrial policy seems to change every year.’ The Jaguar Land Rover plant in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands. Photograph: Jaguar Land Rover/PA

The UK government looks set to land a deal with Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover, in which the company will construct an electric-vehicle battery plant in Somerset in exchange for about £500m in subsidies. Jaguar Land Rover had previously warned that Brexit tariff rules could make production in the UK inviable.

This is not the only time ministers have been warned about the effects of Brexit on investment. Already, the UK’s decision to leave the EU is costing £100bn a year in output. Of more than 100 leading UK manufacturers, almost half have said their EU suppliers are growing more cautious about doing business in the UK.