Policy paper

Sector Plans

Updated 8 September 2025

In the Industrial Strategy, we identified the 8 sectors that have the greatest growth potential over the next decade and a critical role to play in supporting economic security and resilience, net zero and regional growth.  

Each has a bespoke Sector Plan, developed with industry, setting out a vision of the sector’s transformation by 2035. 

We have published all 8 of the Industrial Strategy Sector Plans.

Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced manufacturing is undergoing a significant transformation as the sector looks to decarbonise and digitise. This transformation offers unprecedented commercial opportunities over the next decade.  

As home to one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the world – with world-leading manufacturers, SME innovators and global commercial partnerships – the UK is well placed to meet this moment. 

In this plan we set a clear vision for the UK’s advanced manufacturing sector – by 2035, the UK will be recognised as the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in advanced manufacturing.  

This plan sets out our approach for working with industry to realise the vision and ensure the sector remains globally competitive, resilient and innovative.

Read the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan.

Clean Energy Industries

The potential of the UK’s net zero economy is known – it is already growing 3 times faster than the wider UK economy.   

The ambition for the clean energy industries sector is to double investment levels across our frontier clean energy industries industries to over £30 billion per year by 2035.  

We will deliver this by: 

• leveraging our clarity of mission to drive investment 
• delivering catalytic public investment 
• breaking down barriers to growth 
• ensuring we have the skilled workforce we need, creating good jobs supported by strong trade union representation

Read the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan.

Creative Industries

The Creative Industries Sector Plan will cement the UK’s position as a global creative powerhouse by 2035, building on a sector that already contributes £124 billion to the economy and employs 2.4 million people. 

Through government investment and industry partnership, the plan will significantly increase business investment in the creative industries by 2035 while addressing key barriers to growth. Targeted interventions will boost innovation, enhance skills development, improve access to finance, increase exports and support regional growth. The Plan also includes dedicated support for high-potential creative subsectors.  

Developed in close consultation with industry through an advisory taskforce co-chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette and Baroness Shriti Vadera, this 10-year strategy will unlock economic growth and establish the UK as a global leader in creativity and innovation.

Read the Creative Industries Sector Plan.

Defence

The 2025 Defence Industrial Strategy, the sector plan for Defence of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, is designed to make Defence an engine for growth for the UK, by backing British jobs, British industry and British innovation.

The UK has one of the most advanced and innovative defence industrial bases the world, and this government is committing to the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. The Defence Industrial Strategy outlines the ways in which we will ensure that this investment is unlocking the untapped growth potential in the defence sector, by boosting thriving industrial ecosystems in places in all 4 nations of the UK, resolving skill gaps, prioritising dual-use technology and removing barriers to growth for UK businesses.

The Strategy also recognises that we are in a new era of threats, and that our Armed Forces are only as strong as the industry that stands behind them. By 2035, the UK will be a defence industrial leader with a strong, innovative and resilient defence industrial base, ensuring that we are ready to deter and defend against the threats we face, now and in future.

Read the Defence Sector Plan.

Digital and Technologies

By 2035, our vision is for the UK to be one of the top 3 places in the world to create, invest in and scale-up a fast-growing technology business. We will aim to secure the UK’s first trillion-dollar technology business.   

New technologies are transforming our economy and society, creating new sectors and business models, and providing huge new opportunities for growth. The UK’s world-renowned science base and technology ecosystem will help us seize this opportunity.

The Digital and Technologies Sector Plan will prioritise frontier technologies with the greatest growth potential for the UK.

These are:

• advanced connectivity technologies
• AI
• cyber security
• engineering biology
• quantum technologies
• semiconductors 

Through the Sector Plan, we will:

• align investment in research and development with our frontier technologies
• improve access to growth finance to help start-ups scale
• build a workforce with the necessary skills
• reform our regulatory approach to support innovation to help UK technology-driven businesses become global leaders

Read the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan.

Financial Services

The financial services sector is one of the UK’s largest and most productive, worth around 9% of total economic output. The sector is also an enabler of growth across the whole economy. People and businesses rely on the sector every day, from providing mortgages to managing their pensions, to raising capital and securing lending.  

The UK’s status as a global financial sector cannot be taken for granted, and international competition continues to accelerate. The UK must continue to adapt and innovate to maintain our world-leading position. We will always uphold the highest standards, but we must also ensure the regulatory environment supports growth. 

By 2035, our ambition is for the UK to be the world’s most innovative full-service financial centre. 

Read the Financial Services Sector Plan.

Life Sciences

The Life Sciences Sector Plan includes new measures to streamline regulation, introduce low-friction procurement, and support high-potential UK companies to scale, invest, and remain in the UK.

The plan has been developed alongside the NHS’s forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan to ensure alignment between health and growth objectives. It sets out a vision to drive growth, innovation, and better health outcomes through 3 interconnected pillars: 

• enabling world class R&D 
• making the UK an outstanding place in which to start, grow, scale and invest   
• driving health innovation and NHS reform 

Together, these pillars will build a globally competitive, self-sustaining life sciences ecosystem – creating jobs, boosting productivity, and improving lives across the UK.

Read the Life Sciences Sector Plan.

Professional and Business Services

The UK is a global leader in the provision of Professional and Business Services from law and accountancy and consultancy to advertising, architecture and engineering. The PBS sector provides 1 in 7 jobs across the UK, is the largest services sector contributor to the UK economy and are trusted advisers to business. 

The PBS Sector Plan sets out the sector’s ambition for 2035 for the UK to be the most trusted adviser to global industry, with the most dynamic and productive PBS sector, remaining the world’s second largest exporter of PBS. 

We will do this by: 

• government committing through the Spending Review over £150 million in transformative programmes to increase technology adoption and innovation in PBS to take advantage of AI and new emerging technology sectors
• developing a highly skilled workforce 
• exploiting new overseas market opportunities 
• enabling access to growth finance across the UK 
• providing international leadership in setting standards and regulations

Read the Professional and Business Services Sector Plan.