Mentions of “clusters” in the UK’s new Industrial Strategy, published at the end of June, have more than doubled since Theresa May’s original 2017 version – up from 34 mentions to 81 mentions today, in nearly half the pages.

This shift speaks volumes. For place-based advocates like us, it signals a major change in the way central government thinks about innovation and growth, with significant implications for clusters like ours. We’ve followed the development of this strategy closely, contributing to last year’s consultation both independently and through the UK Innovation Districts Group (UKIDG). While the final strategy has landed with little fanfare, it represents a notable policy shift worth paying attention to.

Overall, the strategy tries to thread the needle between the UK’s traditional sector-based approach (with 8 chosen growth sectors known as the “IS-8”) and a newly bolstered place-based approach.

In this long-standing battle of places versus sector, place continues to make ground.

However, as Centre for Cities points out, the Government’s IS-8 sector approach would allocate funding mainly to the South East. Attention to places, then, will need to be balanced within the Strategic Sites Accelerators and the Mayoral Recyclable Growth Fund (£500m). That said, political pressure to spend outside of London continues to dominate the narrative; more words are dedicated in the strategy to describe clusters of excellence in North West Northern Ireland, than to the whole of Greater London’s clusters.

Still, several announcements are particularly relevant to the KQ and our wider network:

• Launch of the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, which will provide up to £500m to grow high-potential innovation clusters across the UK. It is likely at least £30m will be allocated for London. The fund aims to generate £1bn of co-investment and £700m of additional value to local economies.

• £100m for a National Data Library, complementing a £600m partnership with KQ partner Wellcome for a single access point to NHS data.

• Skills packages in 3 sectors including £187m to bring digital skills and AI to classrooms through TechGrad, TechExpert, TechLocal and TechYouth programmes, and £100m over 3 years to support engineering skills. (The third package is in defence.)

• A commitment to delivering HS2; working with businesses and local leaders to unlock large–scale commercial sites, including a new Life Sciences hub at Euston and a transformational project at Birmingham Curzon Street.

• Creation of a permanent Industrial Strategy Council.