With all eight sector plans published and quarterly delivery reporting successfully embedded, the Modern Industrial Strategy now sits within a coherent policy regime spanning infrastructure, trade, regulation, planning and patient capital. This is real progress, and a more institutionally grounded approach compared to most previous UK industrial policy efforts.
But the Strategy remains stronger on architecture than on the outcomes businesses can feel today. The most pressing gaps are electricity costs, grid access, skills supply and turning national priorities into investable local projects.
What is the purpose of the report?
This isn't a scorecard of commitments delivered or investment secured - the government's own quarterly reporting already does that. Its purpose is to capture the lived experience of the Industrial Strategy from the perspective of business: what has genuinely changed on the ground, where momentum is building, and where delivery still lags behind the ambition set out a year ago.
How can business leaders use it?
The report can be used in three ways:
- A benchmark of what the Strategy has delivered in practice
- An influencing tool to press government where business needs faster progress
- A guide to engaging the new administration, where continuity of direction and a credible, funded year-two delivery plan matter most.
What members told us:
The key takeaways
- The foundations are real. Eight sector plans, a quarterly delivery cadence, and aligned infrastructure and trade strategies give the UK the continuity it has historically lacked
- Institutions and patient capital are starting to function. The National Wealth Fund is steering more than £100bn across priority sectors, and the Mansion House Accord could unlock around £50bn of new capital
- Delivery is the test now. Electricity costs, grid connections, skills and the translation of strategy into bankable local projects are where progress must accelerate
- Year two must be the delivery year - judged on outcomes, not new documents
- Foundational sectors must share in the gains. Steel, chemicals, construction and energy networks underpin the frontier sectors and cannot be left behind.
The key recommendations for UK and devolved governments
For the UK Government:
- Cut industrial energy costs faster - the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme is the right intervention, but its main provisions don't begin until April 2027
- Turn the connections pipeline into delivered capacity, building on the £2.5bn Connections Accelerator
- Build the workforce - around 600,000 additional workers are needed by 2030 in priority sectors
- Unblock planning so investment can land, translating the Planning and Infrastructure Act into faster, more certain consents
- Lock in long-term stability by putting the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council on a statutory footing through the Industrial Strategy Bill
- Deliver a single, multi-year regional funding settlement for all Mayoral Strategic Authorities.
For the devolved nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland):
- Make the toolkit genuinely UK-wide. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland still run their own economic strategies alongside the UK framework. The next phase must give the devolved nations a defined delivery role - turning parallel strategies into one UK-wide growth engine.
What's next in our campaigning work?
In the year ahead, the CBI will:
- Sustain continuity and momentum through the transition, so the Strategy and its sector plans continue seamlessly
- Support an active role for the state that attracts and complements private investment
- Strengthen place - working with the Chancellor and mayors on long-term regional funding and business-led delivery
- Keep the focus on delivery, judging year two on outcomes rather than new documents
- Resolve outstanding policy tensions on skills, governance and UK-wide reach.
For more information, please contact Mark Goldstone, CBI Policy Manager, UK Competitiveness.
