Burnham sets “national goal” to be the world’s leading innovation nation
“This is a moment to challenge ourselves to go further,” Prime Minister Andy Burnham told this morning’s Innovation Nation Summit in Manchester:
“I today set the national goal to be the world’s leading innovation nation. The good news is I think we’re already close.”
Explaining what this meant in practice, he suggested that there should be a “globally significant cluster in every region and nation,” each of which would in turn have a “globally significant company.”
He also linked the commitment to his oft-expressed desire to “reindustrialise the UK” – a topic which business secretary Jonathan Reynolds shared more thoughts on earlier this week, saying that it wasn’t about “wishing away economic trends” but rather gaining competitive advantage through the industrial strategy.
The Prime Minister told the summit that there was no reason the UK could not be the place where a cure for cancer is found, or where nuclear fusion becomes a commercial possibility.
Later in his speech he went into more detail on the relationship between innovation and devolution, ahead of a white paper later this year expected to set out further policy measures. Rewiring the “over-centralised” country would help to create the conditions for innovation, Burnham argued, referencing the “the fusion of public, private, and academic sectors around place-based strengths.” Ahead of the speech, the National Centre for Universities and Business released an open letter warning that devolving innovation must not lead to the fragmentation of national capabilities.
Burnham revealed that further details about good growth funds for every region would be announced at the Budget at the end of the month, but outlined three specific measures which will form part of the wider devolution prospectus. The first was the handing-over to mayoral control of the Local Innovation Partnership Fund from 2028 – former science secretary Liz Kendall committed to this earlier this year, saying that it would happen in the next spending review period.
The Prime Minister also pledged to identify the clusters around the UK with “the potential to become truly world-leading” – and with UKRI commit £1bn over four years to these areas – and to encourage more collaboration between clusters.
On this latter point, as well as highlighting the Cambridge-Manchester partnership, he welcomed the joint undertaking from Oxford and Liverpool and the collaboration between Imperial College London and the University of Warwick which was unveiled earlier this week.
Growth and reform
The summit was organised by the Labour-aligned Growth and Reform Network, and hosted by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. A briefing accompanying the summit made the case for five shifts needed for the UK to become a leading innovative nation: the creation of “globally significant, globally confident” clusters, better diffusion, growth capital at scale, strategic execution, and greater dynamism. A follow-up report from the group is planned.
Elsewhere in the speech, Burnham confirmed that the government will seek to support start-ups and scale-ups through legislation prohibiting non-compete clauses and other restrictive employment practices, as tech groups have been pushing for in recent weeks.
He concluded by echoing recent comments from science minister Chris McDonald reflecting the government’s growing commitment to capturing the value of innovation within the UK:
“How many innovations how many inventions can you think of that began here and then were scaled up somewhere else around the world? This is part of our national story of which we should not be proud – and we should commit to change today.”