Three strategies and a year in power
Date published:
By Rachel Anderson, assistant director, policy
This week marks a year since the Labour government took office and Rishi Sunak (remember him?) packed his bags and left Downing Street. It’s been a tough old slog for the new Government, quickly discovering that running the country with a sluggish economy, global uncertainty, and a taxation straitjacket isn’t quite as straightforward as it seemed from the opposition benches.
There’s been a lot to get to grips with — and true to form, this is a government that likes to do things in threes: trade deals, strategies, summits… and the occasional u-turn.
The latest trio? Three flagship strategies aimed at kickstarting development, industry and trade: the infrastructure strategy, followed by last week’s industrial and trade strategies.
Spare a thought for Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds here. These strategies are serious business, major building blocks of economic policy, designed to lay out a 10-year plan for the UK economy, the kind of long-term thinking we’ve rarely seen. And what happens? They barely register in the media, buried under headlines about Trump and the latest welfare row.
So, let’s give them a bit of airtime.
First off, while these are national strategies, there’s plenty in them for the North East. The infrastructure plan includes long-awaited commitments: the Washington Metro extension, more money for regional bus services (which might even start turning up in threes again), the reopening of Ferryhill station and a host of road upgrades. All of these are regional priorities, and all will help make the industrial strategy deliverable.
The industrial strategy itself is pretty high-level. In essence, it’s the government picking the modern sectors it believes will drive economic growth over the next decade. Just as the Victorians backed coal, iron and textiles, this government is pinning its hopes on advanced manufacturing, net zero, digital, defence, construction, life sciences and professional services – all of which have a strong foothold in our region. It also sketches out (lightly) how it plans to support those sectors through policy, funding and skills.
Once the infrastructure’s in place and the sectors are thriving, the final piece of the puzzle is selling it all to the world — enter the trade strategy. Released last week, it includes a beefed-up support offer for exporters, funding to visit key markets, targeted help for inward investors, and a push on new trade deals.
If it all works, it could shape the UK economy for years to come. Let’s hope they’ve got the mix right.