Industrial strategy: do the government’s proposals match up to the task?

This article assesses the UK government’s proposals on industrial strategy, published in a Green Paper in January 2017. The need for an industrial strategy is rooted in fundamental imbalances in the UK economy. The proposals in the Green Paper, however, are modest. There is substantial new money for R&D and on issues such as procurement and skills the government makes the right commitments, but the Green Paper fails to address a number of major issues that are key to an industrial revival.