PUT COMPETITIVENESS AT HEART OF INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY TO GROW ECONOMY

It’s been a big week at the CBI. We were delighted to welcome hundreds of delegates – from business, politics, and media – to our Annual Conference in Westminster. Despite recent disquiet over the Budget, the mood was one of defiance not depression, with business leaders fired-up and ready to put the UK firmly back on the path to sustainable growth.??

There were plenty of panels for delegates to get their teeth into – from tech to net zero, to one focused on industrial strategy – featuring business leaders from a variety of sectors and from across all parts of the UK.? We also heard from Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch – in her first major speech to business as Conservative Leader – who set out their respective stalls on the road ahead for the economy. And of course, CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith and CBI President Rupert Soames shared their thoughts on the moves needed to catalyse greater business investment.??

Throughout the conference, business leaders were clear and united in one thing: they want government to listen. They want Ministers to reflect on the Budget and its impact on investment and growth plans, and to find practical ways to change the conversation with joined-up, confidence-boosting policies that can put the country back on the right path. In short, they want an industrial strategy.??

In our recently published ‘Blueprint for Competitiveness’, the CBI has put forward a framework for boosting economic growth through public-private partnerships. The goal being to transform economic challenges into economic opportunities and build resilience against future shocks.? With a robust and effective industrial strategy you start global and implement local. That doesn’t mean picking winners – it means picking races – races we can win. And crucially, building on the strengths of every part of our economy. Get that right and our economic potential truly does become limitless.

That’s the good news. The bad is that our recent surveys are showing business activity and optimism to be in increasingly short supply.??The evidence is now backing-up what we’re all feeling: that we badly need to inject momentum into the UK economy. And we need to do it quickly. While all eyes will be on government to map out its future plans, we know that the UK’s growth ambitions can only be met if UK firms decide for themselves to invest and grow. That’s where government and business need to work together, to co-create a way forward that allows us to win on the world stage, while delivering for communities at home, like here in the South West. Teamwork has to be the name of the game.

Here at the CBI, we are known for building bridges between government and business. Our annual conference was one way of doing that, but it’s the day-to-day activity – the more than 400 meetings with minsters, civil servants and regulators since April – that really make the difference. The tinsel may be out and the Christmas holidays almost upon us, but there’s still crucial weeks to go to make sure the business voice is heard clearly across the corridors of power. With discontent over the Budget still bubbling, that remains our full and undivided focus.

?

?