25th September 2024
“Growth is the challenge and investment is the solution – investment in new industries, technologies and new infrastructure.”
Fine and encouraging words indeed – so why are we already seeing UK technology companies at the forefront of innovation failing at a rate of knots because they cannot get the necessary support and funding at home?
We either lose this innovation or these companies look for support and investment outside the country. If they then successfully scale, we then lose the long-term wealth creation.
In my opinion, we have a real over cautious and short-term view on investment and it is holding us back.
Clean energy is a prime example. We are seeing some amazing start-up technology businesses, many having been spawned from our world leading universities in sectors such as electrification and hydrogen (production, storage & delivery).
Unfortunately, they simply cannot attract the funding necessary to develop and scale their process at the pace they need to. Private investment is out there but can be difficult to obtain with many strings attached and, ultimately, this is where government needs to do more.
The opportunity in clean energy is akin to the excitement of industry 4.0, but one could argue the size of the prize is much, much bigger.
However, we have already seen large UK projects given to oversees companies, a long-running mistake we have seen before when we had expansion in wind energy – almost all the spend went to German, Danish and Spanish companies. As we all know, only in the UK could this ever happen.
So, let’s not give hollow words and ear-catching speeches. Instead, let’s invest in a long-term Industrial Strategy that cherishes and cultivates UK innovation and creates stronger links between government, education and business. We have all the skills, all the capabilities, we just lack any meaningful long-term vision and have done so for a very long time.”
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