81%
Of UK business leaders say an industrial strategy is essential to growth
Skills, jobs and talent
Ranked the most important components for growth
£650bn by 2035
Could be added to UK GVA by addressing biggest enablers
With growth stagnant and public finances strained, the new Government had to turn the tide. We looked to help by sparking a national, business-led discussion outlining what was needed in a new industrial strategy.
Setting the scene
In Spring 2024, the UK’s economy continued to lag other G7 countries. We anticipated that the forthcoming 2024 General Election was likely to result in an industrial strategy being developed, but that its success would depend on clear prioritisation and strong collaboration between business and policymakers.
So we set out to spark a national, business-led discussion on what an effective industrial strategy would look like based on research with business leaders, economic modelling and our industry insights.
Our work
Drawing on the firm’s skills and expertise, we designed our approach to achieve three central aims:
Identify the key areas business leaders believed would improve productivity
Quantify the potential economic benefits of improving performance, through data-driven analysis and economic modelling
Engage the business community and government, to raise awareness of the potential opportunities and benefits.
The result was our Framework for Growth research programme. Combining a survey of 1,200 respondents and 60 in-depth interviews, we identified the areas where business leaders wanted the next industrial strategy to focus. They cited ‘skills, education and talent’, followed by ‘digital transformation and cyber security’, and then ‘planning and infrastructure’ as the key barriers to growth.
Alongside this data, our economic modelling revealed the potential impact improving performance in these areas could have to both the overall UK economy and individual sector growth.
This was all published as a report, to raise awareness more widely, and an interactive web application which makes it easy to explore the data across ten components for growth.
Our Framework for Growth was launched at events in London and Birmingham, which brought together businesses and policymakers, the latter featuring West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker. The launch was supported with an opinion piece in The Times by our Senior Partner Marco Amitrano and extensive social media promotion.
Our impact
Our launch events attracted over 140 attendees, including senior industry and government leaders, enabling us to engage in follow-up conversations.
We hosted a high-profile event for cross-industry non-executive directors, as well as business roundtables at our Leeds office, where we were joined by Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin. We also hosted two industry roundtables, covering financial services and technology, bringing together industry leaders and Department for Business & Trade (DBT) representatives. The research was cited in the CBI’s Blueprint for UK Competitiveness.
It has also led to discussions with key government departments, including HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the DBT, with our firm engaging with ministers and permanent secretaries as a trusted adviser on growth policies.
It was satisfying to see the final Industrial Strategy in July 2025 echoing a number of the central findings of this original research.
Framework for Growth: Prospects for 2025
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