The Truss government has been urged to affirm its commitment to using research spending to drive innovation, particularly in the regions, after mixed signals on industrial strategy and the appointment of a secretary of state whose ideology may favour a “laissez-faire” approach.
The decision to appoint Jacob Rees-Mogg as secretary of state in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy brings a potential tension between the concept of industrial strategy – the government using public investment to boost productivity by stimulating new markets or technologies – and the view of the ultra-Thatcherite wing of the Conservative party, from which he hails, that the state should have a reduced role in the economy.
Kwasi Kwarteng, now chancellor, had already said in his time as business secretary in the Johnson government that the industrial strategy “brand” was being dropped – although the government subsequently published an innovation strategy.
