Trade unions, MPs and business leaders have questioned whether the
government’s new industrial strategy will succeed if Britain leaves the
single market in Europe, despite Theresa May pledging that it will create a platform for businesses to grow after Brexit.
The industrial strategy, unveiled in Warrington, Cheshire, shows the
prime minister is prepared to take a more interventionist approach in
British industry than previous governments.
The green paper states that five sectors will receive special
government support because of their potential: life sciences, vehicles
with low CO2 emissions such as electric cars,
industrial digitalisation, the creative sector and the nuclear industry.
Support could include help with trade deals, deregulation and the
creation of new institutions to develop skills or research.
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Theresa May
is to signal an era of greater state intervention in the economy as she
launches her industrial strategy with a promise of “sector deals”, a
new system of technical education and better infrastructure.
The prime minister will publish the strategy at a cabinet meeting in
the north-west of England, naming five sectors that could receive
special government support: life sciences, low-carbon-emission vehicles,
industrial digitalisation, the creative sector and nuclear industry.
She will say the government would be prepared to deregulate, help
with trade deals or create institutions to boost skills or research if
any sector could show this would address specific problems.
The deals would be available only to sectors that organised
themselves and made the case for government action, with May citing the
automotive and aerospace industries as sectors that had successfully
used this model.
Helping specific industries could be easier once Britain has left the
EU because it may no longer be bound by state aid rules that restrict
how governments of member states can support companies. The industrial
strategy is also a marked change from the approach of the previous
Conservative-led coalition, which took a more laissez-faire approach to
the economy.
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