Cover Feature
EN asks:what’s the strategy for the eighth biggest
industry, worth £11bn to the UK economy, Boris?…
In a nutshell, there isn’t one...
Words: Saul Leese
owever, there is a plan of
sorts, rubber-stamped by the
Department for Culture, Media
and Sport (DCMS) minister,
Helen Whately, and called The
UK Government’s International Business Events
Action Plan (or Action Plan).
It’s not a strategy, far from it, unlike the
momentus undertakings of the Industrial
Strategy approved by Theresa May back in 2017,
when we all knew that we were leaving the EU.
In it, the former secretary of state for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark,
rethinks what the manufacturing industry
requires, and identifies five pillars that form the
foundations of a plan for industry including;
ideas and creativity, people, infrastructure,
business environment and regions. For me, it
sets a benchmark for sectors to follow.
Furthermore the Industrial Strategy makes
some impressive promises, like raising research
and development (R&D) investment to 2.4
per cent of GDP by 2027, increase the R&D
tax credit to 12 per cent, invest £725m in new
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Programmes
to support innovation and invest £64m in
developing skills and establish a new £2.5bn
Investment Fund to drive innovation in the UK.
As it stands, the Action Plan aimed at
exhibitions, all 25 pages of it, is far more
toothless than May’s 256 page document.
Instead, it seems more like a few ideas strung
together. Despite the Event Industry Board’s
(EIB) continued committment and advice
to the DCMS and the Department for Arts,
Heritage and Tourism (DAHT), the government
has promised just £250,000 of investment for
2020. This money, which is an extension of
VisitBritain’s GREAT campaign, has supported
38 events over the past three years, a chunk
of which were government quangos or local
authorities.
The Action Plan starts with an impressive list
of facts noting that the business events sector
brings in around £32.6bn, and 8.8 million
March — 19