It is admirable to want to “fix the foundations of the UK economy and to kickstart a decade of national renewal”.

Apparently… "In its drive for growth, the industrial strategy will shape the economy, taking advantage of the UK’s unique strengths and untapped potential, enabling already world-leading industries to adapt and grow, and seizing opportunities to lead in new and emerging industries”. 

However, there is one thing completely overlooked. The current reality. 

Industrial strategy shouldn’t be just about doing more. It should include doing as much with less. Tackling inefficiencies can add as much, if not more, to profitability and creating good, well-paid jobs as growth will. Not only that but growth costs money, it makes more sense to release that money from efficiency savings rather than borrowing it.  

A key part of this overlooked element is energy efficiency, and in particular energy efficiency in buildings. UK businesses are wasting massive amounts of money, by wasting massive amounts of energy, through not addressing inadequate buildings and inefficient management of them. That money should be spent on driving growth, not on paying for unnecessary energy consumption. 

We fully support the objectives to capture the growth opportunities of the clean energy mission and support clean energy industrial sectors with the greatest growth potential. However, until energy is 100% zero carbon, using clean(ish) energy is still far worse environmentally than not using energy. We need to ensure that the only energy we are using is energy that needs to be used. 

Even if the energy being used was 100% zero carbon, it would not be cost free. Spending money on energy you do not need takes away availability of that money for driving growth and paying hard working people a decent a wage. 

The economic security objectives for the industrial strategy are focused on driving growth, reducing supply chain and other vulnerabilities, and ensuring national security risks inform the approach. However, there is no mention of the fact that simply using less energy reduces one of the largest supply chain vulnerabilities of all and cuts the national security risk from reliance on other nations to meet our energy needs. 

And as a final point, it is worth considering that improving the energy efficiency of our buildings requires people to do sensible things to those buildings. i.e. it “supports high-quality jobs and ensures that the benefits are shared across people, places, and generations”. A stated objective of the industrial strategy. 

The 8 growth-driving sectors completely overlook the opportunity to drive growth in energy reducing industries such as the entire sector that exists to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. 

There is a fair attempt at a big picture in the industrial strategy, but it seems one particularly relevant piece of the jigsaw is sadly missing. That missing piece risks seriously undermining our ability to deliver on the overall vision.