Corporate treasurers are responsible for financing business activity and managing liquidity. This makes the Association of Corporate Treasurers unusual as a professional body with members across all sectors and sizes of business. Having called for publication of the Industrial Strategy on a number of occasions in recent months, we are pleased to see the detail and direction of this shared today.
As a roadmap, the Industrial Strategy is an important document for businesses, investors and wider stakeholders to understand the long-term thinking of Government. While some companies and sectors may not necessarily agree with the strategy or perhaps feel overlooked, we would argue that some strategy rather than none is likely to make the UK a better place to invest and do business.
It is important to highlight the UK’s strengths in areas such as higher education, our legal and regulatory frameworks as well as our creative industries; however, we agree that in an ever changing and challenging economic, tech and political environment, standing still and relying on historical advantages is not enough. Overall businesses require stability to invest and to grow, but there is a need to ensure progress for example in broader infrastructure such as transport, housing and technology to keep pace with the needs of businesses. So it will be important that the industrial strategy complements the infrastructure plan published last week, too. Sensible business policies require wider joined-up public policy.
Reform is key, so it is pleasing to see a real rally around changing planning rules, reducing regulatory burdens or lowering the energy costs of certain businesses. We particularly welcome the proposed investment in upskilling the UK workforce and proposals to continue attracting elite global talent, albeit we would like to see these inititiaves kick-in earlier.
While we await further detail on the financial services sector plan, overall it is pleasing to see the Government has a plan for business and has also provided information on how it intends to implement it.
They have said that growth is one of their key pillars, and that growth will depend on the success of business and its ability to invest, recruit and expand – expert treasurers will be core to these decisions. It will also be crucial that there is internal consistency in other policy areas, too. So it will remain important that broader policies in areas such as tax or employment do not undermine or contradict the intent of the Industrial Strategy’s ambitions.
