Government right to put people’s earning power at the heart of its industrial strategy 27 November 2017 Commenting on the publication of the government’s Industrial Strategy White Paper today, Resolution Foundation Executive Chair David Willetts said: “Given the grim outlook for living standards we heard at the Budget last week, today’s White Paper has the right focus on improving the nation’s productivity, and with it people’s earning power. “A key new strand to today’s strategy is the welcome focus on tackling the output gap between different parts of the UK, with new powers for Metro Mayors to support job creation and stronger pay growth in Britain’s major cities. “Industrial strategies inevitably focuses on exciting new industries, such as AI and life sciences. But to be truly transformative for living standards, this new strategy needs to focus more on lower paying sectors such as retail, which employs three million people. “All governments have an industrial strategy but they are too often unstated and implicit. It is great that we have this clear and ambitious statement which enables performance to be monitored and policies to be up-dated.”
