Government must take ‘assertive role’ in industrial strategy

The UK’s industrial strategy needs to get a “full and ambitious settlement” in government spending reviews and a funding scheme to support general-purpose technologies, according to two policy heavyweights.

Mariana Mazzucato, director of University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, and David Willetts, a former science and universities minister and executive chair of the Resolution Foundation think tank, said on 22 May that the industrial strategy must be “a prominent part of the economic plan of this and any future government”.

“The industrial strategy must receive a full and ambitious settlement in spending reviews to ensure its longevity and success,” they said in a joint report launched at UCL.