Industrial Strategy

Alan Mak Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) on securing this important debate on a key aspect of the Government’s policy programme. I begin by welcoming the creation of a new Cabinet Committee on industrial strategy, which will put science, technology, innovation and exports at the heart of the Government’s agenda. I also welcome the Secretary of State’s speech at the Royal Society in July in which he committed to supporting new technologies and new industries as a key part of this new industrial strategy.

My argument is that only by embracing the fourth industrial revolution as part of the industrial strategy can we truly achieve our potential as an industrial power in the 21st century. This fourth industrial revolution—the unprecedented fusion of technologies that blurs the traditional boundaries between the physical, digital and biological spheres—is already transforming industrialised economies around the world, including our own.

That revolution is now accelerating and leading to breakthroughs and new products in fields such artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and the internet of things. I am talking about driverless cars, drones, 3-D printers and nanotechnology to name but a few. They have already captured the imagination of the British public and now the attention of our policymakers. Mastering and leading the fourth industrial revolution should be at the heart of the new industrial strategy for our own country. What is clear from the experiences of other nations is that countries that are best able to take advantage of this new revolution are those with nimble economies, supportive Governments, low taxes and a competitive regulatory regime.

I am pleased that the Minister has confirmed that the Government will continue to focus on pro-enterprise and pro-innovation policies, which make Britain a world leader when it comes to starting and growing a business and exporting to the world.

I wish to offer three suggestions to the Minister and his colleagues as they develop our new industrial strategy for this century. First, the economic benefits of the fourth industrial revolution must be shared throughout the country, including in places such as Havant, and not just concentrated in London. Regional investment funds for 4IR technologies should be made available to promote regional growth hubs that stimulate growth and innovation outside the M25. I see local enterprise partnerships as a key partner, building on the success of the Government’s catapult centres, which the Minister mentioned in his remarks.

I very much welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement in Birmingham a few weeks ago that an additional £100 million will be made available to extend the biomedical catalyst and that there will be an extra £120 million for universities across Britain to fund new tech transfer offices. Those are welcome and forward steps. Research UK and Innovate UK—both Government-backed bodies—should also continue to ensure that their work and funding are truly national.

Secondly, the Government should use their procurement power to buy British when it comes to 4IR products. Other advanced economies such as Israel already play a key role in helping new sectors and new industries to develop, and our Government should do the same. The news that our Ministry of Defence has launched a new £800 million fund to promote defence innovation is therefore very welcome and a good example for other Departments to follow.

Finally, Britain must continue to invest in digital infrastructure, which is as essential to our future economy as railways were in the age of steam. This should include a new phase of the fibre-optic broadband roll-out, and 5G mobile internet.

I have put my thoughts in a new paper, which I have written with the free enterprise group of MPs and which is backed by the Institute of Economic Affairs. I look forward to sharing it with the Minister just before the autumn statement, and hope that he will come back to me on it.

In the meantime, I hope that the Minister will agree that, as the fourth industrial revolution gathers pace, we should embrace it and encourage it as part of our new industrial strategy. Throughout our history, Britain has adopted a pro-innovation and entrepreneurial approach to technological development. From farming mechanisation to domestic labour-saving devices, we have never allowed our fears about the future to hold back our economic or social progress. We soon realised, for example, the folly of requiring early cars to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag. We must adopt the same forward-thinking approach when it comes to the fourth industrial revolution and our new industrial strategy. Just as happened in centuries gone by, this new wave of technology can certainly bring about substantial benefits, from greater productivity, new jobs and lower production costs to more choice for consumers through new goods and services. If we deliver all those things as part of our new industrial strategy—more jobs, more productivity, lower production costs and more choice—we will certainly have delivered an economy and a country that works for everybody.