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Priorities for growth: Business and Trade Committee sets out areas of inquiry
The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee has set out its latest report into its priorities, identifying seven priority workstreams for 2026. These are:
- AI, productivity and the future workforce;
- Delivering the Industrial Strategy and rebuilding UK competitiveness;
- Inward investment and UK economic security;
- Implementation and enforcement of employment rights;
- Regulatory reform;
- Fostering enterprise: entrepreneurship and micro businesses;
- Consumer protection.
techUK fed into the Committee’s call for evidence both through a written submission and at an in-person evidence gathering session. Our input has focused on a number of key growth-driving measures for the tech sector and the wider economy and has been cited in this report.
1. AI, Productivity and the Future Workforce
The Committee’s report rightly acknowledges that the use of AI and other digital tools sits at the heart of the productivity question. With UK productivity growth historically lagging behind international peers, digital and AI adoption is a critical lever to unlocking economic growth, and the report highlights that government policy on AI, training and skills will be a crucial part of the process.
2. Delivering the Industrial Strategy and Rebuilding Competitiveness
This adoption question sits at the heart of the Industrial Strategy published last year, which takes a sector-specific approach, as well as the work of the Cross-Government Review of Tech Adoption and SME Digital Adoption Taskforce, both of which techUK has submitted evidence to.
Whilst the tech sector and wider business community broadly welcomed the Industrial Strategy, there are increasing concerns over the gap between ambition and delivery, which this report rightly recognises.
In our submission, we argued that uncertainty over long-term strategies could dampen investment, especially in capital-intensive areas such as technology and R&D. As a result, 2026 will be a crucial year for the Industrial Strategy, as businesses and investors look to see clear evidence that the measures contained within are implemented quickly and effectively.
3. Inward Investment and Economic Security
techUK is cited within the report making the argument that “businesses in a small open economy like the UK, compete in a world that is both interdependent but in which interdependence is a greater risk to manage...today’s business operating environment as one characterised by growing risks to the UK’s economic security”.
Indeed, no credible growth policy can ignore our economic security and issues such as the resilience of our supply chains and the overall stability of the UK as a destination for investment.
4. Employment Rights and Enforcement
The Committee’s report highlights some concerns that businesses have shared, including uncertainties about how provisions in the Employments Rights Act 2025 will be implemented and the impact this uncertainty is having on investment and hiring decisions.
5. Regulatory Reform
The Committee cites techUK among a number of business groups that have argued for the need for better regulation, citing high compliance costs in the present system and the burden that complex and sometimes unclear regulation poses for businesses.
The report notes that “it is clear to the Committee that regulation in the UK is not working as it should for businesses” and commits to investigating the issue further in 2026, developing “an approach to gathering examples of out-dated regulation, regulatory incoherence or examples of regulations simply not keeping up to date, in order to scrutinise the Government”. The Committee will also monitor progress made towards the government’s target to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance by 25% by the end of the Parliament.
6. Fostering Enterprise and Supporting Micro Businesses
The report notes that support for businesses and entrepreneurs was a key theme to its engagement, and referenced the government’s ‘Entrepreneurship Prospectus’, which “acknowledged some of the challenges the Committee heard through its engagement programme and outlined three priorities: unlocking capital, better utilisation of government procurement and better support from government”.
The report also notes persistent issues, such as inconsistent access to scale-up finance across the country and the fragmented nature of business support, both issues that techUK and our members continue to highlight.
7. Consumer Protection
Finally, the report notes that the Committee will continue its work to ensure that consumer protections keep pace with digital markets, new business models and evolving technologies, whilst acknowledging the need for any system to remain proportionate.
Elsewhere
techUK is also cited as calling for the UK’s export licensing system to be updated in order to keep pace with the times and ensure that dual-use technologies are regulated appropriately. The report notes that “it is clear that the rapid pace of technological change will bring both opportunities and challenges in the form of technologies with both civil and military applications”.
Conclusion
The report sets out in no uncertain terms what many businesses and business organisations are calling for – a more coordinated approach to government and policy that focuses intensely on delivery. In doing so, the government can bolster the businesses’ confidence that it ultimately means what it says, and that strategies will make it off the page and into practical decision-making.
Original article link: https://www.techuk.org/resource/priorities-for-growth-business-and-trade-committee-sets-out-areas-of-inquiry.html
