What a tremendous crowd we had to our Industry Forum roundtable on 'A new agenda for financial services'. This was hosted by Edelman and we were welcomed to their London offices by Jonathan Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Public and Government Affairs at Edelman. The turnout shows the enthusiasm of the UK financial sector to engage with the government on getting the country growing again. This enthusiasm was shared by our speaker, Lord David Pitt-Watson, recently appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, after a successful career in fund management and, latterly, in academia. The government has made clear its ambitions for economic growth and the importance it attaches to trade and re-industrialisation. Furthermore, it is committed to fiscal discipline, despite the constraints this imposes. To tease out bottlenecks in the economy and identify opportunities as they arise it needs to work closely with individual sectors. Many issues, such as the lack of intelligent risk capital, and the scale-up investment gap, are longstanding but deserve a second look, especially as the UK offers relative stability and freedom from the arbitrary interventions that can affect other financial centres. We couldn’t solve all the UK’s financial problems at this short meeting, but we look forward to holding more meetings, and being able to help answer the Government's call for the UK financial sector to help the UK economy gain momentum.

We were delighted to hold our first Industry Forum policy roundtable at the wonderful new Workday City customer experience centre, hosted by James Johns, Senior Corporate Affairs Director of Workday. The topic was ’Generating greater domestic investment to power growth.’ The discussion was expertly led by Callum Anderson MP for Bletchley and Buckingham who, prior to Parliament, worked in the heart of the City for the London Stock Exchange, and the City of London Corporation. There was general approval of the Pension Schemes Act 2026 introduced by pensions minister, Torsten Bell, which has a number of measures to help consolidate existing funds into superfunds with more ability to invest significantly in UK industry. How quickly such measures bear fruit will of course be affected by some of the current turbulence in international affairs and the world economy.

Kicking off the Industry Forum Autumn programme in style, this month, was The Lord Darroch of Kew (Kim Darroch) former UK Ambassador to Washington, and former UK Permanent Representative to the EU. The topic, with critical relevance to the UK economy, UK companies and UK jobs was ’Reinvigorating our Relationship with Europe.’ The discussion ranged over the implications of Russian intransigence, US unreliability and the rise of far-right political parties. There appear to be no quick answers to these problems and the wars they have spawned. There are many promising initiatives to strengthen Europe militarily and to bolster its sovereignty and economic performance, but moderate politicians are struggling to communicate urgency and the need for some financial sacrifice to their electors. Hopefully, the collegiate approach of the new UK Burnham-led administration will help the UK and Europe work more closely together. This meeting was hosted by the leading London law firm, Fieldfisher.

While Westminster awaits the new UK Burnham administration with bated breath, the Industry Forum and Business with Europe held a meeting in central London on the topic of ‘How can Europe compete with US innovation.’ Policies of the Trump administration, and the military threat from Russia, both point to an urgent need for Europe to raise its game in the tech industries. The scope of this challenge is vast but the view from members and guests was that an urgent first step is to address the UK regulatory burden caused partially by Brexit and partially by the policies and regulations adopted by the EU. The Industry Forum is conducting a short research project on this subject over the Summer and we will have a discussion paper ready for the Autumn when we hope to hold further, more detailed meetings in conjunction with Business with Europe.

The Industry Forum and Business with Europe held a productive meeting to discuss UK-EU reset progress and priorities prior to the next summit meeting, likely in July 2026. It is clear that the relationship between the UK and the EU has dramatically improved since the election of the UK Labour government. The discussion was led by Trevor Greetham and Nick Harvey CEO of European Movement UK also participated. Useful progress to improve trade is being made in a number of sectors but the UK government’s red lines mean that dramatic and rapid improvements are unlikely. This will make it difficult for the government to reduce the extra Civil Service staff costs incurred to cope with Brexit, and there will be a similar cost burden for private sectors. For example, chemical industries have had to employ hundreds of extra chemists to deal with post Brexit regulations and many SMEs have had to accept the costs of increased regulation, or cease trading with EU customers. Hopefully, such economic considerations, and the transformed and more threatening geopolitical environment since 2016 will give rise to a more fundamental revision of the UK-EU relationship.

The Industry Forum held an event in April at RIA's London offices titled 'An integrated plan for the UK road and rail networks'.

Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Ruth Cadbury MP, led a roundtable discussion on a range of topics, including: the recent publication 'Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport'; how Great British Railways will bring together track, train and property; and the opportunities available to create a more joined-up network.