UK appoints Microsoft lifer to chair its new Industrial Strategy Advisory Council

This is apparently the UK’s first new industrial strategy for seven years, so businesses around the county must be feeling rejuvinated by this new dawn. They will be especially inspired by the pledge to belatedly ‘create a pro-business environment’, which will focus on eight sectors the government reckons are particular strengths of ours. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has also pledged ‘an end to instability’.

“Our modern industrial strategy will hardwire stability for investors and give them the confidence to plan not just for the next year, but for the next 10 years and beyond,” insisted Reynolds. “This is the next step in our pro worker, pro business plan which will see investors and workers alike get the security and stability they need to succeed.”

Of course, no government initiative is complete without the creation of a new bureaucracy to see it through. In this case it’s the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, which Reynolds first unveiled to the FT last month. “We are sick of hearing about how the UK has lost out to France and President Macron,” he told the FT. “We are sick of hearing how other countries like Spain, when it comes to automotive policy, are coming across hungrier than we are.”

This new cunning plan is sure to silence those dissenting voices. The Council will chat to businesses, trade unions, devolved governments, local leaders, academia, and other stakeholders to monitor progress and generally keep an eye on things. It will be chaired by Clare Barclay (pictured), who has worked her way up through the ranks at Microsoft UK over the past 26 years to become its CEO.

“Clare’s wealth of talent and experience will help ensure the industrial strategy delivers its mission of unleashing the potential of high productivity sectors to spur growth, spread wealth, and drive-up employment across the UK,” said Reynolds. That’s some remit.

“As Chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, I will ensure the Council provides a clear and strong voice on behalf of business, nations, regions, and trade unions, as we invest for the future to ensure that our prosperity is underpinned by robust growth in key sectors right across the country,” said Barclay. “Whilst we fully embrace the industries of today, we must also have a clear plan for future growth, and the Advisory Council will play a central role in shaping and delivering this plan.”

Great. The industries Barclay et al will be keeping an especially close eye on are: advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services. “This government is determined to deliver on Britain’s potential so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off,” said Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, continuing the new government’s upbeat core narrative about the state of the country. You can read the full plan here.

Elsewhere, the UK government also announced four other US tech companies have announced they will collectively be spending £6.3 billion on data centres and associated infrastructure in the UK. In descending order of their respective contribution to the total, the companies are: CyrusOne, Cloud HQ, ServiceNow, and CoreWeave. This will apparently make us better at AI, which in turn will make us all healthier somehow.

“Tech leaders from all over the world are seeing Britain as the best place to invest with a thriving and stable market for data centres and AI development,” said Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, also showing admirable message discipline. “Today’s drumbeat of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to work with business to deliver sustained growth for all.”

As ever with new cunning plans, only time will tell. Foreign direct investment is great but it will take more than that and some new committees to significantly improve our global competitiveness. Still, you have to start somewhere and if this government does a better job of creating opportunities for domestic companies (even if that sometimes means just getting out of the way) than the last lot, that will be something to celebrate.