National and Regional Strategies and Plans

In June 2025, the government published the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, a strategy setting out a 10-year plan to boost investment, productivity and resilience across the economy. The strategy builds on the Invest 2035 green paper and forms part of the government’s mission to achieve the highest rate of sustainable economic growth in the G7.

The government describes the strategy as a ‘whole-of-government effort’, with the state taking a more active role in supporting businesses. It aims to boost business investment in eight sectors it has identified as having the highest potential, which the government refers to as the IS-8.

The strategy includes commitments to:

• Target support at the IS-8 – Advanced Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Digital & Tech, Clean Energy Industries, Defence, Financial Services, Professional Services, Creative Industries.
• Improve the business environment by aiming to attempting to reduce electricity costs, planning delays and regulatory burdens and by expanding access to finance and skills.
• Support regional growth through local growth plans, new investment funds for city regions and closer partnerships with devolved administrations.
• Strengthen economic resilience by backing so-called foundational industries (such as steel, chemicals and ports), investing in critical supply chains and increasing defence spending.
• Establish a permanent Industrial Strategy Council, supported by an Industrial Strategy Unit in the Department for Business and Trade, to monitor delivery and track progress against core metrics (such as business investment, productivity and exports).

Read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strategy

This plan is London’s 10-year ambition for growth, and the actions we will take to make it happen. It includes the sectors and places that London will grow.

This growth plan sets out four bold ambitions:

1. Productivity: Raise productivity growth rates to 2% average per year over 2025 to 2035.
2. Inclusion: Raise the real household weekly income (after housing costs) of the lowest earning 20% of Londoners by 20% by 2035. This would mean that at least a million London households would have on average an extra £50 to spend each week after paying for housing costs.
3. Green growth: Accelerate progress towards achieving London’s net zero target for 2030.
4. A global capital: Grow London’s services exports by an average of 6% per year.

London’s growth sectors and places

• The Plan focuses on growing our financial, professional and business services, creative industries, the experience economy and international education
• It focuses on exporting fintech, enterprise tech, creative tech and edtech on a global scale alongside traditional services.
• It highlights London’s new superpower: frontier innovation – and London is evolving from a skilled adopter of innovation to a frontier creator of breakthrough technologies and solutions.
• Increase the capacity for boroughs to develop more local growth strategies and to win the investment to make them happen.

What the plan proposes

• The vital task for the Plan is an inclusive talent strategy. This will be London’s workforce plan to create the pipeline of talent for growth and to support marginalised Londoners.
• To mobilise the city, the plan takes a “mission” approach to growth. A Growth Mission Board will bring together public and private sector leaders to oversee delivery.
• The Plan promotes innovation through ‘industrial innovation corridors’ across the city.
• Seeks to improve SME support and productivity.
• It focuses on housing and a push for major transport networks and expansions such as: Bakerloo Line extension; Docklands Light Railway extension to Thamesmead; West London Orbital Overground
• Strong Local High Streets – Inject funding (e.g., £21 million) into high street regeneration to support small business, reduce vacancies and strengthen community economies.
• The plan will also support London’s goal to be a net-zero city by 2030/

Read more: https://growthplan.london/

On 20 October 2025, the government published its post-16 education and skills white paper. According to the ministerial foreword, the white paper sets out the government’s plan “to educate and train the workforce of the future and give people the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.”
 
It includes a target of two-thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning by age 25, and the intention to re-introduce maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged students to be funded through a levy on international tuition fee income.

Skills

• The white paper argued that “too many people lack the skills to get into work and to get on at work”. The government has said that the UK labour market is too over-reliant on international recruitment, and it will aim to rebalance this towards domestic workers.
• It will review the adult essential skills offer, join up the skills and employment systems, support the development and implementation of local skills plans, and reduce the chances of young people becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) through the Youth Guarantee.
• The government intends to focus public funding on improving skills provision in priority sectors. These are the eight sectors that have been identified as “growth-driving sectors” in the Industrial Strategy, and also include the construction sector, and the health and adult social care sectors.
• The white paper also explained the roles of Skills England and Strategic Authorities in the skills and employment system.
• Replacing the current range of level 3 vocational qualifications with new “VLevel” qualifications, which will sit alongside A Levels and T Levels as the only level 3 options for 16 to 19-year-olds.
• Rolling out Technical Excellence Colleges.
• Bringing further and higher education providers closer together by making the higher education regulator in England, the Office for Students, the primary regulator for all providers offering courses at level 4 or above.

Higher Education

• A vision for the higher education sector characterised by greater collaboration with FE and other local partners; and greater specialisation across research and teaching.
• Restriction on student growth at institutions where teaching is deemed to be of low quality.
• Tighter regulation of franchised provision, with plans to defund large franchise partners not registered with OfS and introduce new legislative powers to address financial exploitation and protect students.
• A reform of APPs and greater powers to OfS, as well as a new focus on postgraduate access and a new Task and Finish group, which the RG will be represented on
• A commitment to work with universities to increase research cost recovery.

Read more

The UK Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England, “Fit for the Future” was published on Thursday 3 July 2025. At the heart of the plan are three strategic “shifts”:

• from delivering care in hospitals to delivering care closer to home, in communities and in primary care
• to digital transformation of service delivery
• from a service treating sickness to one focused on preventing illness occurring in the first place

The plan details how the £29 billion real terms increase in day-to-day spending for the NHS, over the next 3 years (as announced in the Spring 2025 Spending Review) will fund reforms, service improvements and new technology. 

• Neighbourhood health services: When announcing the plan the government focussed on the ‘left shift’ to the community, and the plan’s aims to create “a neighbourhood NHS” (see Gov.uk, PM launches new era for NHS with easier care in neighbourhoods, 3 July 2025).
• Digital services – The plan states the shift from analogue to digital “will transform the NHS from being a bricks and mortar service to a digitally led one, where patients can access care online and offline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” At the core of this shift are proposals for an expanded NHS App, which the plan states will be a full front door to the entire NHS by 2028.
• Prevention – The plan sets out the government’s goal to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, while increasing it for everyone, and “to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.”
• A new operating model for the NHS – The 10 Year Health Plan sets out a new NHS operating model, with a redesigned centre of the system, at the Department of Health and Social Care and other national bodies. The government has said integrated care boards (ICBs) will be smaller and re-focussed on strategic commissioning and population health outcomes, with a new system of “earned autonomy” for providers. 

Other measures included in the 10 Year Health Plan: 

Measures aiming to improve patient experience and choice are a key theme running through the plan. There is also a focus on several other areas, including workforce strategy and wellbeing, tackling health inequalities, improving quality of care, technological innovation, and the efficiency and productivity of services.  Underpinning this, the plan describes a new “financial foundation” for the NHS, with reforms to the way resources are allocated.

Read more.

Connect to Work is a voluntary supported employment programme funded by the UK Government and delivered locally across England and Wales as part of the Get Britain Working strategy. It’s designed to help people with health conditions, disabilities, or complex barriers enter and sustain meaningful employment, and to support people already in work but at risk of losing their job. 

Eligible participants typically include:

• Adults (usually aged 18+) who are unemployed.
• People employed but at risk of losing their job due to health or other barriers.
• Individuals facing complex barriers such as disability, long-term health conditions, caring responsibilities or other disadvantages that make finding and retaining work harder. 

Participants receive one-to-one, tailored help with:

• Vocational profiling and personalised action planning.
• Job search and skills matching.
• CV writing, interview preparation and job applications.
• Ongoing in-work support (coaching, workplace mentoring) to maintain employment.
• Support for employers (e.g., advice on inclusive workplaces).
• Self-employment support, where appropriate. 

Read more.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has become a major hub for culture, education, sport, research and enterprise, with institutions like Sadler’s Wells East, BBC Music Studios, V&A East, UCL and London College of Fashion all contributing to a dynamic local economy. 

The purpose of the Framework is designed to ensure long-term benefits for local communities and the wider city by aligning partners, inviting collaboration, and making shared investments that drive social, economic and environmental progress. 

The Framework focuses on three key interconnected pillars: 

1. Habitat – creating a sustainable environment where people, nature and business can thrive.
2. Inclusive Talent – expanding access to future jobs and opportunities for east London’s diverse communities.
3. Health and Wellbeing – using the Park as a testing ground for ideas that support healthier, fairer lives. 

LLDC intends to measure success by collective impact in areas such as:

• vibrant mixed-use neighbourhoods
• good jobs and skills development
• health benefits
• growth in start-ups and innovation
• stronger community belonging on the Park’s spaces 

Read more.

The UK Government launched a new 10-year National Youth Strategy, Youth Matters. The Strategy represents a significant step forward for young people in London and across the country, and a pivotal opportunity for sustained, cross-government action to create a brighter future for all young people. 

Two ambitions have been set by Government for 2035: that 500,000 more young people have access to a trusted adult outside their home, such as a youth worker; and that the participation gap between disadvantaged young people and their peers is halved. 

The Strategy explicitly recognises youth workers as key delivery partners in meeting these objectives. Youth workers build richer lives for young people and provide a vital ladder of opportunity – particularly for those who are ill-served and marginalised in their communities. 

Key commitments include:

• Lowering the age of 16 for all elections
• £60 million Richer Lives Fund to support high-quality youth work in underserved communities
• £350 million expansion of the Better Youth Spaces Fund, including up to 250 new or refurbished youth facilities and equipment for around 2,500 youth organisations
• £5 million to strengthen local sector partnerships and digital infrastructure
• Investing in a strong and stable youth sector workforce is vital, and we welcome the dedicated £15 million over three years to strengthen workforce capacity.
• Enrichment activities that promote outdoor learning
• Pathways to employment for all young people – The Strategy commits to supporting young people beyond education and helping nearly one million young people who are currently not in education, employment or training through a Youth Guarantee. 

Read more.