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.”