YouSaid · the spoken record
Jonathan Reynolds
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On the record 2010–2026
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“I welcome Make UK’s comments that “Today is one of the most important days for British industry in a generation.” We are creating a prosperous, proud and outward-facing but self-reliant, independent and high-skilled nation; a country where opportunity, skills and wealth are spread fairly, and where every person and every business have the chance to flourish. That is what our modern industrial strategy will deliver. Our future, in our hands, built in Britain: that is what the strategy will achieve. I commend this statement to the House.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is a watershed moment. For too long, Governments have been a source of problems for British business, not a path to solutions. The result, in parts of the country where I and many of us here grew up, was that we watched yards and factories close, along with the door to opportunity. There was a sense that we were losing the past, but we had no bridge to the future. That also ends now, because our plan for change is backing this country’s greatest assets and frontier industries to put more money into people’s pockets, raise living standards and unleash a decade of national renewal.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The UK has long been and will remain a champion of free trade, which is why, under this Government, we have delivered trade agreements with our biggest trading partner in the world, the biggest economy in the world and the fastest growing economy in the world, making the UK the best connected market in the world. Through this industrial strategy, we are reaffirming our commitment to free and fair resilient trade, while shielding businesses from supply chain disruption and market-distorting practices. We will leverage our relationships with Europe, the US, China, the Gulf and beyond, so that businesses can make the UK their base to connect with global markets. It will work hand-in-glove with the trade strategy, which my Department will publish later this week, to help British companies break into new markets, export more and grow more.”
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“We have already announced the largest increase in defence spending since the cold war and will use this to transform the UK into a defence industrial superpower by 2035, leading Europe in defence exports and closing the gap with the US by half in venture capital investment in defence. For our financial services, the heart of business investment and stability, we will harness opportunities as markets digitise and adopt new technologies, and ensure the whole economy feels the benefits of increased investment. The industrial strategy also ensures that places and sectors can take full advantage of the UK’s position as a global hub for trade.”
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“We will significantly increase business investment in our world-leading creative industries sector to £31 billion, cementing our position as one of the great creative exporters in the world. For our life sciences sector, our ambition is that the UK will be, by 2030, the leading life sciences economy in Europe, and, by 2035, the third most important life sciences economy globally, after the US and China. At the same time, we plan to double business investment in professional and business services to £61 billion, ensuring the continued growth in a powerhouse industry that accounts for millions of jobs in the UK, the vast majority outside London.”
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“These measures, alongside our transformative sector plans, are how we can realise the untapped potential in key parts of our economy. For instance, by 2035 we aim to double business investment in advanced manufacturing, increasing the volume of vehicles produced in the UK to 1.3 million, while creating the first European market for self-driving vehicles. We are turbocharging our clean energy mission with investment in offshore wind, small modular reactors, carbon capture, green hydrogen, gigafactories, ports and green steel. We will make our United Kingdom one of the top three places in the world for creating and scaling digital and technology business. That means training 1 million young people in tech skills and expanding our Al research resource by at least twentyfold by 2030.”
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“However, our infrastructure must match our ambition, so we will strengthen connections between city regions and clusters through the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, the growth corridor across our northern city regions, the Edinburgh-Glasgow central belt and rail enhancements in Wales. Finally, we will unlock billions of pounds in business finance, with the National Wealth Fund supporting our growth sectors, an expanded role for UK Export Finance and £4 billion growth capital for start-ups and scale-ups through a larger British Business Bank, addressing at scale the key stage that we know is the most challenging. This growth capital will catalyse £12 billion of private capital across the eight growth-driving sectors and deliver around £30 billion of additional gross value added to the UK economy.”
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“I want to be clear that this strategy is unashamedly ambitious. It chooses to back places where there are clusters of high-growth sectors, and it will work with devolved Governments, Mayors and local leaders to boost that growth. We are making it easier to get money to places and turn investment into spades in the ground and cranes in the sky through industrial strategy zones, which will bring together our existing network of freeports and investment zones. We will also, for the first time, include a new programme identifying investible sites where we will fast-track development, similar to the approach taken in France.”
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“Our industrial strategy sectors are already on track to create 1.1 million new good, well-paying jobs with the help of this industrial strategy, and we want those opportunities to benefit all our constituents. That is why we are investing over £275 million in our engineering skills package and the skills mission fund to deliver training and new technical excellence colleges as part of our wider skills offer. Through our global talent visa reforms and the global talent taskforce, we are also ensuring that UK businesses can recruit the best of the best from here and abroad. Thirdly, the issue of place—the economic geography of the UK—means a great deal to me and many of my colleagues, who listened to the grand plans to level up that turned into a few extra flowerpots and empty promises.”
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“We will also launch an expanded version of the supercharger scheme, so that some of our largest companies in electricity-intensive sectors—including investments of the future such as the new steelworks’ electric arc furnace at Port Talbot and the Agratas gigafactory in Somerset—will see their network charging exemptions rise from 60% to 90%, cutting their electricity bills and again making them more competitive than our European neighbours. Although the previous Government promised that to business, they again failed to deliver. I confirm that this will all be done without adding a penny to consumer bills or those of any other business. Secondly, we are shaking up the skills system to prioritise digital, engineering and defence skills, so British workers can secure good, secure jobs in tomorrow’s economy.”
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“We will also put in place the reforms we need for businesses to get the much faster connections to the grid that they need. That means companies in sectors such as car making and chemicals will see their electricity costs cut. The scheme could benefit over 7,000 businesses with high electricity usage in industrial strategy foundational industries and high-growth manufacturing sectors, which collectively employ over 300,000 skilled workers.”
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“Thirdly, there is place, because too much of the country has been held back by crumbling infrastructure and a lack of investment due to the north-south divide—and that ends now. We will make the bold choices to ensure every region and every nation can play to their strengths. Finally, there is access to finance, because without access to capital we will always have a ceiling on ambition. Today, we have smashed through these barriers. Let me take each of those four in turn, starting with energy. Today, we have announced that we will slash electricity costs by between 20% and 25% through a new British industrial competitiveness scheme. This will bring our prices more closely in line with those in Europe, and it will be a game changer.”
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“We must go further and faster if we want to achieve the kind of economic growth that the public should expect, see in their public services and feel in their pay packets. Business leaders have provided a wealth of testimony and evidence on the areas that they see as holding them back, and there are no surprises on the list. It starts with energy, because we have among the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world at present. They went up 50% in real terms under the previous Government. Second on the list is skills, because when we have vacancies at the same time as one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training, and net immigration is at 1 million, as it was when we took office, something has gone badly wrong.”
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“From the moment we took office, we said that we would pursue a new economic approach in which industrial policy would be done with business, not to business, and we are fulfilling that commitment today. I place on record my thanks to the thousands of businesses that engaged in the process and designed the strategy with us. It is not a document that will be printed and then forgotten; we will put the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and the industrial strategy on a statutory footing to hardwire the changes for the long term. This Government have brought stability, openness and a pro-growth agenda, but as I have told the House previously, working people must feel the benefits of economic growth.”
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“It is a plan to rebuild Britain through new jobs, new industries and new investments; a plan to launch thousands of new careers in engineering, life sciences, professional services and more; and a plan in which Britain’s future is designed and built in Britain. I accept that until this Government came to power, British business was treated to a merry-go-round of policy changes that was matched only by the shuffling of successive Business Secretaries. We are now providing the stability that is at such a premium across the world. Make UK has long called for “a funded and joined-up long-term vision as a matter of urgency for stability and investment”— I could not have put it better myself.”
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“Today I launch a strategy to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business, based on a fundamentally new economic approach from what we have had in the past—a break from the declinism, the dither and the disinterest that defined the last Conservative Government. The strategy speaks to the strength and breadth of our economy, be it building strong industrial foundations, powering frontier technologies, or supporting our world-leading services sector to innovate and thrive. It brings together every bit of Government to drive investment, improving the total business environment by drawing on every Department’s expertise.”
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“With permission, I will make a statement on how this Government are backing British business and British workers through the launch of the UK’s modern industrial strategy. At the outset, I wish to thank Dame Clare Barclay, all members of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and my officials for their outstanding work in preparing for the launch of the strategy today. In an uncertain world, stability, clarity and consistency are needed more than ever. The challenges we face require nothing less than a Government who are on the pitch and clearing the way for private enterprise, and doing so in the best interests of working people. That is what this pro-business, pro-worker Government are going to deliver.”
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“They ask me for more of that, and that is exactly what we intend to bring forward. Finally, let me say, because I know that this is so important to colleagues, that I am more than happy to offer a briefing to any Front-Bench spokesperson or group of colleagues across the House. There is so much in the strategy that will make a difference and so much detail worth sharing, and I would be more than happy to do so with colleagues. Let us all get behind the strategy and get behind British industry.”
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“On the bioethanol industry, talks continue with the two plants most directly affected. Of course, they were in a challenging position before the US trade deal; the deal was not in itself the cause of that. They were losing money. If I intervene, I must have a route to profitability, and that is the basis of those conversations. We are committed to precision breeding. Businesses that moved to France would find a more restrictive environment there because of EU regulation, so I would not recommend that. On OneWeb, there are some specific issues, about which I would be more than happy to talk to the shadow Secretary of State. On regulation, we have already taken decisive action, for example with a strategic steer to the Competition and Markets Authority, which has been warmly welcomed by businesspeople.”
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“The small business plan will come out in July, and it will deal with issues such as late payment, business support and access to the kinds of tools—rental auctions and so forth—that will make a difference on the high street. The shadow Secretary of State attacked net zero. That is a mistake. Why would we turn our back on billions of pounds of investment and all the benefits it could bring? In particular, becoming a country that is not so reliant on volatile foreign gas prices is an obvious thing that we would not want to turn our back on. He seemed to announce a new Conservative position of opposing CBAMs, which deal with carbon leakage and create a level playing field. I am surprised by that, because the previous Conservative Government were strong advocates of them.”
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“We needed to address, too, the failures on the funding of courses such as engineering. That was such an obvious need for our sectors. Finance is one of the longest-running problems; we are all familiar with it. The shadow Secretary of State asked a number of questions, and I am more than happy to answer them. On small businesses, if he reads more of the detail when he has a bit more time, he will see that small and medium-sized enterprises play a vital role in the creative industries and defence sector plans. To anyone who asks, “What’s the message to businesses that are not in sectors covered by the industrial strategy?” I say that they will benefit from people having good jobs and high incomes. Whether they are in hospitality, retail or leisure, they will see a direct benefit from the strategy.”
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“Members who spend time with businesses on constituency Fridays and at weekends. They will be told about skills, energy, access to finance and how local areas should have the powers to address the needs in their local economies. I hope that the shadow Secretary of State would recognise, in good spirit, that many of the problems that need to be addressed grew under the Conservative Government. For example, the fact that energy bills became so uncompetitive was a result of actions and decisions of the Conservative Government. We are fixing that problem, in order to make a difference. On skills, one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training, while net immigration is at 1 million. That is not a policy success. It needed to be addressed.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“So fuelled by optimism am I today that even the shadow Secretary of State cannot bring me down. Having been in opposition for some time, I can say that, “This document is all rubbish and I welcome most of it,” is quite an exciting take on a response. The Conservative party has managed to oppose almost everything that the Government have done in their first year, including, in my Department, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which the previous Government were planning to introduce had they remained in office, and the India trade deal, which they were negotiating but could not get across the line, so I welcome the small bits of positivity in his response. Everyone across the House should support the strategy. It is based on things that will not be secrets to hon.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Of course, we will have to set a threshold intensity test and make sure it goes to the sectors in most need of it, but we expect those to include the core foundational sectors as well as aerospace, automotive and all the areas where the competitive pressure is most acute. I am incredibly excited by that.”
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“I warmly welcome those words from the Chair of the Select Committee. I absolutely agree with him. There is so much in the strategy, but we were so uncompetitive on energy that whether action could be taken had become a test of credibility from business. The kinds of changes we are talking about—a reduction of £35 to £40 per megawatt-hour by exempting eligible businesses from payments for the renewables obligation, feed-in tariffs and the capacity market—will make a real difference. We are talking about going from being the absolute outlier to, today, being cheaper than Italy and the Czech Republic and on a par with Germany. That is a game changer, and it has been welcomed. We will obviously have to consult; we can make the changes to the supercharger more quickly than we can introduce that support.”
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“Lady proposes would mean that we could not have the trade deal with India, which has brought down tariffs on salmon, Scotch whisky and automotive vehicles. It would mean that we could not have the agreement with the US, which has saved tens of thousands of jobs, so I cannot agree with her on that point. I think we should have closer trade with Europe, the US and the rest of the world. Finally, I thoroughly agree with the hon. Lady on access to finance, and I appreciate that point. This is a core business and economic issue for the UK, not a minor issue. The level of finance that is going to female entrepreneurs, for instance, is not sufficient. We have already explicitly backed some significant campaigns through the British Business Bank and I stand ready to do more. I recognise the important case she makes.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We will ask Skills England and the industrial strategy council to work more closely on what businesses need to invest in more, and we will ask them to report by the Budget to see whether we can take forward a more comprehensive set of changes. The Department for Education owns that part of the policy, of course, but this is a cross-Government industrial strategy, as it should be. On agrifood, it is a subsector of advanced manufacturing, so the hon. Lady should not worry, because it is included. The only item of disagreement is trade. I would say that this Government are managing the pressures of international trade better than any other country in the world. The customs union that the hon.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I want to see action as quickly as possible. I can make changes to the supercharger scheme and the generosity of it more quickly because it is an existing scheme and the intensity threshold is already in place, but the industrial competitiveness scheme will require legislation to implement it, and that will take more time, depending on how co-operative colleagues are across the House. I welcome what the hon. Lady said on skills. Skills will always be the No. 1 issue that any business raises with its Member of Parliament. I recognise the case she makes about a fundamental reform. Since the apprenticeship levy was introduced, employer investment in skills has gone down, and that is not what any of us want to see.”
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“I warmly welcome the hon. Lady’s support. That section of the Liberal Democrat manifesto was very well written, whoever was responsible for it. There was much that we can all get behind, and it very much made the case. The hon. Lady is right to say that the Liberal Democrats in government supported the approach we are taking. By the way, I have talked to nearly every one of my living predecessors across the political divide—not all of them, but the ones who have done this kind of work and made a difference. There are some new things in the sectors that we have picked. The creative industries are a brilliant economic, soft power and cultural strength of this country, so it is great to see them included. On the timescale for energy policy changes, I know that the people who recognise the burden want to see action quickly.”
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“There will be a proper process to assess thresholds and eligibility, but it is designed in such a way that foundation sectors—ceramics is very much included in the material side of that—would get the benefit of the programme.”
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“I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s comments in welcoming the strategy. There is a great deal that I could go through. I would get in trouble with you, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I mentioned the benefits for every sector in the document, but I think we would all recognise the pressure on the ceramics sector through energy prices—much of the industry is gas-intensive, and there are not policy tools for dealing with that in the same way. Only a small number of ceramics businesses currently benefit from the supercharger—I think only eight in total—which is why the test for the British industrial competitiveness programme is a different one.”
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“That has meant putting more money in up front to run it at full capacity, which I think he will very much support. We will continue to work with anyone in the local area, including him and my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Sir Nicholas Dakin), to ensure that there is a bright future for the steel sector. I believe that will be possible based on the policy environment we are putting in place.”
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“I thank the hon. Member very much for his work. I think the whole House knows of my personal interest in steel and the measures we have taken, including the recall of Parliament and the passing of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 that was required to save his constituents’ jobs. He is right that the investment required in some of the most electricity-intensive opportunities of the future—electric arc furnaces, for instance, were we to go down that route at Scunthorpe —requires the kind of programme that the enhanced supercharger level will get to because of the measures outlined in the strategy. There is not yet a plan for transition at Scunthorpe. As the hon. Member knows, we have taken control, but we need to resolve the issue of ownership. We continue to run the plant in a way that minimises losses to the taxpayer.”
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“We now have a story on finance from UKRI and Innovate UK for innovative start-ups, to the British Business Bank for scale up and maturity, going to the National Wealth Fund, and UK Export Finance supporting every part of that journey. That comprehensive offer is detailed in this strategy document, and it will benefit all parts of the UK, including of course the north-east of England.”
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“First, let me congratulate my hon. Friend on her recent honour. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] I know that she is not one for a fuss, but it is inspiring, and it is great to see that recognition. My hon. Friend is right that access to finance is a pillar of the industrial strategy. For instance, in the spending review, the British Business Bank’s capacity was increased to up to £4 billion, and the maximum ticket it could write was increased to £60 million as part of that. We also had a huge increase in the capacity of UK Export Finance in the spending review—as my hon. Friend knows, the north-east is a huge exporting region and has the most positive balance of payments of any English region—and its direct lending capacity has increased as well.”
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“Well, I think that was a positive response to the industrial strategy. It certainly sounded like there were some positive themes there. The hon. Member asks a reasonable, specific question about her constituency, and I will check that with officials and write to her so that she has the correct information. If she has had a chance to look at it, she will see that the strategy includes big commitments to the advanced manufacturing R&D budget for a whole range of sectors. We are putting in the money that perhaps was not as firm as it is now in the national finances, but we also have long-term plans in many of those sectors around quantum, advanced manufacturing and aerospace 10-year settlements, for example, to give the kind of assurance and consistency we really need, but I will get her the specific answer she needs.”
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“I believe that the benefits can be felt even sooner than the programme can be put in place, but I promise I will stretch every sinew to get it in place as soon as we can.”
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“The birthplace of the industrial revolution is somewhat contested by several of us Labour MPs, but we do not need a vote on that. My hon. Friend’s constituency certainly has a rich history and a great future for her constituents, who have been well represented by her since the election. On energy prices, we all want action sooner rather than later. There are some parts of the programme that I can implement more quickly than others, and I have to do this in the proper way and let people consult on the threshold. In my Department, we are often dealing with big inward investment decisions or existing domestic business investment decisions, and if they can have certainty as to where they will get to in a short space of time—many of these are investments that pay back over not just years but decades—that will make the difference.”
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“I think people recognise that there is a lot of capital in the world, but the question is whether it matches the risk profile and opportunities of businesses in the UK. We all recognise the tremendous innovation in this country, but do we always get the long-term benefits of that scale-up happening in the UK rather than going abroad? We do not, and that is what we are seeking to fix. That is the fundamental mission that we are all united behind.”
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“I welcome the question from my honourable namesake. I hope he is not still getting my emails; I get a few of his, and I try and help out where I can on those local issues. He is right: we have inherited a lot, and there is a devolved landscape to this as well. People often ask—we had a conversation in the Select Committee about this—why we do not bring them all into one organisation. It is important to understand that they play key different roles. I cannot remember what page of the industrial strategy it is on, but the different parts of the journey those different organisations represent are specifically addressed. They are there to do different things. Of huge interest to me is the scale-up point—the serious business-to-consumer point.”
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“SMEs, in diversifying the defence supply chain and creating those opportunities, are absolutely a part of this strategy, and if he has any red tape to show me that we need to get rid of, let’s work together to get rid of it.”
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“I very much welcome the question and the work that my hon. Friend has done. He has been an ally in ensuring that there are no problems around the defence sector being seen as a legitimate source of business investment and economic activity. We recognise why we need that in the national interest, but we should not in any way be squeamish about the contribution that defence makes because the deterrence value is a fundamental contribution to peace, as well as to economic security. I can tell my hon. Friend that the strategy commits us to double the amount of the defence budget that goes specifically to SMEs, rising to £2.5 billion a year.”
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“Maybe our role as parliamentarians, when we ask regulators to fix every problem and stop every bad thing happening, is to ask ourselves whether that is the right balance, whether that is a reasonable request, or should it be—of course, with that in mind—proportionate to the performance of the economy. The right hon. Gentleman mentions some specific measures. We have the lowest corporation tax in the G7 and a competitive tax rate overall, but we are always seeking to improve that. We need supply side tools, fiscal changes and a consistent long-term environment. That is what we seek to put in place.”
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“I hesitate to say this, but I think the right hon. Gentleman underestimates the number of strategies there have been in recent years. It is certainly more than six; we are at 11 in the past decade, or something like that. There have been six Business Secretaries in five years, which is certainly far too many. I think we can all agree that we need some long-term consistency in that area alone. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman’s point on risk. That is one of the more thoughtful contributions I have heard on the low economic growth, mainly under a Conservative Government, since the financial crisis. We have to consider that attitude to risk in terms of regulation.”
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“Having an offer for the kind of apprentices and advanced manufacturing we saw today, alongside pride in our service and creative sectors and what we are doing on defence, is all key to ensuring that there are not just the things we need as an economy, but equities and opportunities for young people, as there should be in every part of the UK, to get the lives that they deserve.”
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“It was a pleasure to see my hon. Friend this morning with my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. I was absolutely blown away by that facility, not just by the obvious “big name” investment from the companies there, but by the young people in particular. Of course, we are trying to deliver a strategy for business, and that requires businesses to have access to the pipeline of people, talent and skills that they need. Within that story, there are so many opportunities and careers for young people. I find that absolutely inspiring.”
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“That is just the nature of a national industrial strategy that respects the devolved settlement. Independence would be ruinous for the economy. It would shed Scotland’s renewable energy potential from the customer base in England. I believe that at the time of the independence referendum, the SNP wanted a UK energy market anyway. If the hon. Member was being honest and candid, he would recognise that there are things that come from the massive strengths of the Union, come what may. This is a strategy that speaks to building on those opportunities for every bit of the United Kingdom, especially Scotland. Scotland’s economy could be described by the eight high-potential industrial strategy sectors in this document, so let’s have a bit of optimism and hope for Scotland.”
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“Well, you can’t please everyone, can you? I am depressed just from listening to that question. On the substance of the hon. Member’s question, he is categorically wrong. Look at what we are proposing for clean energy and what that means for Scotland. Look at the new supercomputer in Edinburgh and what that means for tech and digital. Look at the creative industries and the brilliant opportunities there. Look at the ambition on net zero and all the opportunities for investment in Scotland while cutting industrial energy bills. Of course, there are parts of the strategy that respect the devolution settlement, as we would expect. Skills is something we can only address in England. The money has gone to the Scottish Government for whatever they want to do to take that forward.”
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“As I said in answer to the previous question, when we are doing a national industrial strategy, we—entirely rightly—have to respect the devolution settlement, and there are some supply-side areas of industrial strategy that I as the UK Secretary of State do not have control over. It is right to reflect that, to build on that where we can and to work in partnership where we can. There are things I would like of the Scottish Government. If we think of Scotland’s tremendous pedigree in civil nuclear power, all that investment is denied to Scotland because of the policies of the Scottish Government. I have my frustrations, but I will work together where we are able to do so to produce the best outcome for Scotland.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is the true voice of Scotland—it is fantastic to hear that optimism and pride for the future. My hon. Friend is right that there are huge advantages for her constituents in this strategy, which commits the kind of quantum of funding on a long-term, committed basis on R&D, which cuts industrial energy prices and does things across the board. There is so much that is part of the strategy. If I were to break down each of those sectors, I could be here for hours. You would probably get upset with me, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I read out each of the measures that are part of the strategy.”
House of Commons23 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗