UK commits billions to 'industries of future' to ward off #Brexit shocks

Badly damaged by a botched snap election and with Brexit talks running behind schedule, May is looking to stir up some economic optimism to help her fragile minority government through Britain’s most uncertain period since World War Two.

On Monday, as part of the run-up to finance minister Philip Hammond’s budget on Wednesday, she announced a 1.7bn pound fund to help regenerate cities and a 2.3bn pound boost to research and development spending, due in 2021/22. Further details of the funding were not yet available.

“This is a new long-term approach to shaping a stronger and fairer economy for decades to come,” May said in a Times newspaper article.

The central challenge of Wednesday’s (22 November) budget will be to improve Britain’s persistently weak productivity, which lags international rivals and is seen as a major limiting factor on economic growth.

The new funding is linked to Britain’s “Industrial Strategy” - a push to create more skilled, high-paying jobs that was first announced by May after she took office last year to help fortify Britain’s services-reliant economy against Brexit-related shocks.

May has already set a target to increase R&D spending to 2.4% of economic output by 2027 - a level in line with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) averages.

The funding announced on Monday would take spending to 12.5bn in 2021/22, building on an existing commitment to raise public research spending to 12bn by 2020/21.

The transport-focused 'Transforming Cities Fund' will try to better link up Britain’s cities in search of productivity improvements and foster greater collaboration and innovation.

After nearly 18 months of policy formulation, Clark will announce the government’s industrial strategy proposals on 27 November.