Strategic vision required

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is calling on the Government to ensure its forthcoming industrial strategy is developed on the basis of a strategic vision which sets out in the long term what it aims to achieve and why, rather than simply detailing adhoc policy actions. The Institution has outlined four key pillars which it believes should form the basis of a national industrial strategy.

An industrial strategy must have a defined vision with strategic objectives and sound and accessible analysis to back-up the rationale for this vision. A long term approach must be taken with defined milestones and must be embedded across all of government.

Prof Steve Evans, chair of the IET's Manufacturing Policy Panel, said: "A successful industrial strategy must define 'what' and 'why', rather than just 'how'. This is a crucial separation and one which is often conflated.

"When industrial policy decisions are made without a strategic underpinning, the risk of such policies failing is maximised. Such an approach creates the conditions for overt and unjustified political intervention, where the 'why' and 'what' of a strategy gets decided by short term aims. In such circumstances policy can fall victim to being decided on supporting, among other things, those who shout the loudest."