This long-term vision aims to increase business investment and drive sustainable growth by focusing on the UK’s most productive and innovative sectors.

The strategy follows the Invest 2035 green paper and identifies eight priority growth sectors (the “IS-8”) which will be the focus of targeted policy and investment:

What This Means for UK Industry
The strategy signals a more active, strategic role for government in creating a stable and competitive business environment. Key highlights include:

1. Ease and Stability for Business: The strategy promises to make it quicker and easier to invest by tackling long-standing barriers with specific, tangible reforms. This includes a new scheme to lower industrial electricity costs, a ‘Connections Accelerator Service’ to speed up grid connections, and streamlined planning for major projects like laboratories and gigafactories.
2. Targeted Support for City Regions and Clusters: Recognising that growth is place-based, the strategy commits to significant local investment. This will be delivered through a new £600 million Strategic Sites Accelerator to prepare land for major industrial projects and a £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund to grow high-potential clusters across the UK.
3. A New Partnership with Business: A new, durable partnership between industry and government will be forged, moving beyond short-term political cycles. This commitment is underpinned by the creation of a new, permanent Industrial Strategy Council, which will be enshrined in law to ensure long-term focus and provide independent oversight.
4. Backing Frontier Industries: The strategy provides significant backing for industries at the forefront of technology, evidenced by a commitment to increase public R&D spending to £22.6 billion a year by 2029/30. This targeted funding includes a new £1 billion Clean Energy Supply Chain Fund and a £520 million fund to attract globally mobile life sciences manufacturing.

A Renewed Focus on Skills and Talent
The strategy places a renewed focus on skills and talent, acknowledging challenges such as the fall in adult further education, a decline in apprenticeship starts, and specific skill shortages within the eight priority sectors. In response, the government has made several key commitments:

• Aligning the skills system with strategic economic priorities, particularly the needs of the IS-8 and the opportunities presented by AI.
• Simplifying the English skills system through the work of Skills England, which will co-design solutions to skills shortages directly with business.
• Encouraging greater employer investment in training to build robust talent pipelines.
• Making it easier for leading innovators, researchers, and entrepreneurs to live and work in the UK by creating a new Global Talent Taskforce and introducing a Temporary Shortage List to exempt critical roles from planned visa salary threshold increases.
• Promoting evidence-based initiatives, as set out in Sector Plans, aimed at improving workforce diversity to support business and economic growth.

How the Government Plans to Deliver on Skills
The strategy outlines several tangible mechanisms for delivering these commitments:

• Technical Education (16-19): The government will ensure there are sufficient courses for 16-19-year-olds, using ‘High-Value Course Premiums’ to incentivise providers to deliver training in priority areas like engineering and digital. This will be supported by increased funding for teachers and investment in facilities, including through new Technical Excellence Colleges.
• Flexible Skills Funding: The Growth and Skills Levy will be adapted to fund new short courses in high-demand areas like digital, AI, and engineering, alongside shorter and foundation-level apprenticeships. Skills England will be responsible for introducing these courses in prioritised waves.
• Higher Education & Lifelong Learning: The Strategic Priorities Grant will be more effectively targeted to support courses that meet the UK’s future skills needs. From January 2027, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will be launched, allowing individuals to access funding for modular courses throughout their careers, with a focus on qualifications that support progression in the IS-8 sectors.
• Targeted Skills Packages: A series of investment packages will provide critical, sector-specific skills support, starting with:
  • TechFirst Technology Package: A £187 million investment to embed digital and AI skills in classrooms and prepare the future workforce for technology careers.
  • Engineering Package: A £100 million investment over three years to boost the pipeline of engineering talent through further and higher education, in partnership with Skills England.
  • Defence Package: The establishment of new Defence Technical Excellence Colleges to provide funding for highly specialised, defence-related skills.
  • Construction Package: A previously announced £600 million investment to train an additional 60,000 skilled construction workers over the next four years.

Sector Plans and Next Steps
Alongside the main strategy, the government has begun publishing detailed Sector Plans which outline the specific commitments for each of the eight industries. Plans for advanced manufacturing, creative industries, clean energy, digital and technologies, and professional and business services have been released today. The Sector Plans for life sciences, financial services and defence are expected to follow.

Cogent Skills will be analysing these plans in detail to provide our stakeholders with tailored briefings on the direct implications for the advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and life sciences sectors. We will be working to ensure the voice of our industry is central to the implementation of these skills initiatives, particularly in the design of new qualifications and the focus of the new skills investment packages.

Life Sciences: A Summary from the Industrial Strategy
The Sector Plan for life sciences is yet to be published. In the interim, the main strategy document outlines the following key ambitions and commitments for the sector:

Key Ambitions:

• By 2030, the UK aims to be the leading life sciences economy in Europe.
• By 2035, the UK aims to be the third most important life sciences economy globally, after the US and China.

Supporting World-Class R&D:
The strategy commits to public investment in discovery science, reduced bureaucracy, better access to data, and strategic alignment between UK health and life sciences research funders. Key investments announced include:

Core Priorities:
The strategy highlights several priorities, including making the UK an outstanding place to invest, improving access to finance, strengthening the skills base, supporting UK manufacturers, and driving health innovation through NHS reform.

Identified Life Sciences Clusters:
The strategy identifies key life sciences clusters in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Liverpool, Yorkshire, South Wales, the North East, the West Midlands, and across the Glasgow-Edinburgh-Dundee triangle.

For more information on industrial strategy or skills policy for the science industries, contact [email protected] or [email protected]