The government’s new industrial strategy contains 276 mentions of the word “growth” in its 64 pages. This is considerably more than the number of times “war” (184) and indeed “peace” (63) are mentioned in all 1,200 pages of War and Peace. Where will this forest of economic growth spring from? “High-growth sectors”: the areas of the economy that have grown fastest in recent years and which have greatest potential for future growth. The strategy lists eight of these, including renewable energy, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, but one sector seems to be getting a great deal of attention: Big Tech.
The government’s new investment minister – the latest in a series of ministers imported from the normal world by means of a life peerage – is Poppy Gustafsson, who was the co-founder and CEO of the cyber security firm Darktrace until it was sold to an American private equity last month. Leading the government’s new Industrial Strategy Advisory Council is Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK. Top billing at yesterday’s summit (14 October) was given to Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt.
Listen to the New Statesman podcast
Content from our partners
