How can the new government’s industrial strategy help boost productivity?

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The UK’s productivity record since the financial crisis has been dismal. In the long term, the country cannot become more prosperous and afford the public services it needs without reversing this trend. 

The new Labour government has committed to boosting growth as one of its five missions for government and set out its intention to put industrial strategy at the heart of its policy making. But how can industrial strategy help to restore productivity growth? This event explored the relationship between growth and industrial strategy.

We were joined by an expert panel, including:

• Dame Kate Barker, Chair of The Productivity Institute
• Rt Hon Greg Clark, former Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Andy Westwood, Professor of Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester
• Giles Wilkes, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government

This event was chaired by Gemma Tetlow, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government.

Some of the questions this event addressed are:

• How can industrial strategy help address the causes of low productivity?
• Should an industrial strategy pick sectors to support and how can success be evaluated?
• Who will ultimately be responsible for the industrial strategy and how will the government co-ordinate the different perspectives?

Follow us on X @instituteforgov and join the conversation using #IndustrialStrategy.

Photos from the event can be viewed on our Flickr feed. 

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We would like to thank The Productivity Institute for kindly supporting this event.