BEIS secretary of state Alok Sharma is to chair five ‘recovery roundtables’ to consider measures to support economic recovery, over the next 18 months. The round tables, which will include businesses, business representative groups and leading academics, will also explore ”domestic and global challenges to support a green and resilient recovery”.
The round tables will cover:
- The future of industry: how to accelerate business innovation and leverage private sector investment in research and development
- Green recovery: how to capture economic growth opportunities from the shift to net zero carbon emissions
- Backing new businesses: how to make the UK the best place in the world to start and scale a business
- Increasing opportunity: how to level up economic performance across the UK, including through skills and apprenticeships
- The UK open for business: how to win and retain more high value investment for the UK
Sharma said: “These roundtables are a redoubling of our efforts to listen to and work with the business community and academic experts as we consider the measures needed to support our economic bounce-back. This will undoubtedly lead to a cleaner, greener, more resilient economy which will create new jobs.
“The output from this initiative will feed directly into the government’s work on economic recovery and will help deliver the commitments we made to the British people only last December, which now take on an even greater sense of urgency and importance.”
The round tables will be succeeded by five ministerial-led taskforces to plan how and when closed sectors can safely reopen.