Industrial strategies were not a big thing in the UK from the 1980s until the great financial crisis of 2008-09. Since then, these supposedly long-term plans have arrived at infuriatingly short intervals. The UK has had 10 industrial strategies, growth plans or similar since 2011, according to the Labour government’s “Invest 2035” document, published on Monday alongside the investment summit.
All were accompanied by a blizzard of platitudes and declarations of good intentions. In 2017, Teresa May’s government said it was setting out “a long-term vision for how Britain can build on its economic strengths, address its productivity performance, embrace technological change and boost the earning power of people across the UK”. None of those aspirations would be out of place in Keir Starmer’s vision for “a 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high-growth sectors that will drive our growth mission”.
