Tag Archives: industrial strategy

The UK Cyber Economy Is Changing Shape, and the West Midlands May Be Better Positioned Than It Realises

The 2026 DSIT Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis reveals more than continued growth in the UK cyber sector. Beneath the headline statistics sits a deeper structural transition: cyber is increasingly becoming a distributed economic infrastructure tied to industrial resilience, operational continuity and supply-chain assurance. This article examines the implications of regionalisation, slowing employment growth, rising productivity pressure and AI-driven dependency complexity, particularly for industrial regions such as the West Midlands.

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16 Years On: Was I Right About the UK’s Industry and Innovation Imbalance?

Exactly sixteen years on from my 2009 article on the UK’s economic imbalance, I reflect on how services continue to dominate GDP, while manufacturing still punches above its weight in R&D. I was right about the R&D gap, but missed the rise of intangible capital and startup-led innovation. Cybersecurity emerged as both a strategic asset and an innovation driver. Government efforts have been patchy, and real balance remains elusive. The future lies in resilience, not symmetry.

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