Rachel Taylor, Government and Health Industries Leader, PwC said:
The budget today marked another big step forward for the next UK Industrial Strategy, announcing long-term funding for several of the priority growth sectors identified by the Government including aerospace, creative industries, life sciences, and automotive industries.
PwC UK’s recent Framework for Growth research found the top three priorities for business leaders in helping support their growth was addressing the challenges in infrastructure and planning. The £10m announcement enabling the Cambridge Growth Company to develop an ambitious plan for its housing, transport, water, and wider infrastructure is a very positive step, and sets out the level of ambition and coordination that the Industrial Strategy will need to bring to other priority economic clusters across the UK.
Our Framework For Growth research also identified digital transformation as crucial to driving growth. The announcements in support of the rollout of digital infrastructure, digitisation of public services, and developing a roadmap to capitalise on AI innovations, as well as funding to support innovation in artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, and data analytics are all welcome. As are commitments to the programmes supporting SMEs to adopt advanced digital technologies.
Business leaders who contributed to our research identified access to skills as the most important driver for their success. The additional funding for further education, and the £40m investment in the development of new apprenticeships in key sectors, as part of initial steps towards a reformed Growth and Skills Levy, are therefore welcome. However, measures to increase the investment in workforce skills were notably absent. We will need to see a more comprehensive response to the UK’s skills challenge, aligned with the industrial strategy and developed in close partnership with cities and regions if we’re going to be able to overcome the UK’s skills challenge.
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