Responding to the publication of government’s National Semiconductor Strategy, CPS Business Researcher Gerard B. Lyons said:
‘The National Semiconductor Strategy is welcome, after an unnecessarily long period of delays and uncertainty. The Government is right to acknowledge that the UK simply cannot afford to compete in the global subsidy war being played out by other countries. Nor should it seek to. Instead it is focusing on areas where the UK already has established strengths – which is why it is wrong to make false comparisons between this strategy and the US or EU’s plans.
‘However, as we warned in our recent report on semiconductor, the UK’s efforts will fail if we do not fix the other problems that are holding the sector back, not least planning restrictions which make the construction of new labs and factories next to impossible, and the UK’s alarming gaps in skills and patient capital. All of these hamper investment not just in semiconductors, but in other R&D-intensive industries as well.’
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Gerard B. Lyons, not to be confused with economist Dr Gerard Lyons, is a Business Researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies.
- Gerard B. Lyons is the author of ‘Cashing in our Chips: How to strengthen the UK’s semiconductor sector’.
- For further information and media requests, please contact Emma Revell on 07931 698246 and [email protected] or Josh Coupland on 07912 485655 and [email protected].
- The Centre for Policy Studies is one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in Westminster. With a focus on taxation, economic growth, business, welfare, education, housing and green growth, its goal is to develop policies that widen enterprise, ownership and opportunity.
Date Added: Friday 19th May 2023
