Member Article

Government must follow through on industrial strategy to help SMEs

The UK must grasp its “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to get industrial strategy right, CBI director-general, John Cridland will say today.

In a speech to the joint Government-CBI Industrial Strategy Conference at Warwick University, Mr Cridland will say good progress has been made in developing an industrial strategy, but the Government still has some way to go to deliver on its promise.

The speech comes as a new CBI report called Raising the Bar – Business priorities for industrial strategy one year on reveals that twelve months after the launch of the UK’s industrial strategy, businesses are split on whether they believe the UK will be a more competitive place in five years’ time.

The report calls for a renewed focus on delivery by improving the competitiveness of the UK’s business environment and strengthening supply chains.

The CBI are calling for incentivised supply chain collaboration and want large companies to work with their SME suppliers on access to finance.

Mr Cridland will say: “Strengthening supply chain companies that underpin our champion sectors will make industrial strategy real to people and businesses in every region of the country.

“Nearly two-thirds of businesses surveyed are telling us they aren’t clear about what industrial strategy is seeking to achieve. I want businesses to be able to say that, because of industrial strategy, we’ve got more work and we’re employing more people.

“We have in our grasp a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get industrial strategy right; to underwrite what we’re good at, and to execute a plan to be world-beating abroad, and achieve sustainable and innovative growth and job creation at home.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .

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