techUK Report - Enabling Growth and Resilience: the UK Tech Sector in an Uncertain World

31 Jan 2025 11:15 AM

New techUK report outlines key policy recommendations to boost the UK’s growth through the tech sector amid global challenges, emphasising resilience, trade leadership, and strategic investment.

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Amid increased geopolitical challenges and concerning long-term trends impacting the global economy, the UK is in a difficult position as a trade-dependent economy. The country is vulnerable to disruptions in global supply chains. Despite these challenges, the UK has substantial strengths – including the resilience of its tech sector. In fact, the UK’s tech sector has continued to develop, growing by 81.3% in GVA terms since 2010. 

If the Government is to succeed in its growth mission, then it must put advancing the UK’s technology sector at the heart of its approach. 

techUK’s report – ‘Enabling Growth and Resilience: the UK Tech Sector in an Uncertain World’ – makes policy recommendations on how the UK government can ensure that the tech sector thrives. These fall into four pillars:  

Building policy coherence and longevity 

• The Government must ensure it has the capacity and expertise to understand the rapidly evolving tech sector, that its various policies are coordinated, and that they avoid contradictions that undermine their intent. 

Enabling security and resilience 

• The Government should coordinate economic security and industrial policies with its allies to avoid a harmful subsidy race and maintain a level playing field. 
• Additionally, it should utilise its procurement power and consider strategic investments in key firms to protect critical technologies. 
• The report further calls for a pragmatic and streamlined approach to investment screening and for the Government to account for the impact on businesses when imposing export controls and sanctions. 

Accelerating growth through trade 

• The UK should step up as a leader in support of multilateralism and free and fair trade. This should include improving the negotiation and implementation of Free Trade Agreements, as well as working to reestablish a better trading relationship with the EU.  
• Additionally, the UK should continue its fight against digital protectionism, particularly through the WTO, and negotiate more digital trade agreements with high-value and like-minded international partners.  
• The UK should further build on its regulatory strengths and influence in international standards-setting bodies and push for including AI and quantum technologies in trade agreements. 

Strengthening international development and cooperation 

• The UK should recognise the value of digital technologies to its international development agenda and enhance its leadership in international technology policy. It should also strengthen its research cooperation with partners globally and look to negotiate technology cooperation agreements with key allies. 

Sabina Ciofu, Associate Director – International, techUK, yesterday said:

We are navigating an era of profound uncertainty. Trade tensions, geopolitical instability and climate change are just some of the challenges that disproportionately impact a trade-dependent economy like the UK. To ensure resilience and sustained growth, the UK must leverage its key strengths, with the tech sector at the forefront. The UK Government has the opportunity to invest strategically in an already flourishing sector to further support the growth of the UK economy. But to do that, the Government has to think long term, pick up the mantle of trade leadership, build on its regulatory strengths and coordinate economic security policies with its allies.

The scale of challenges and the types of opportunities that exist are significant - from supply chain pressures on critical technologies like AI GPUs to the broader implications of great power competition and a rapidly changing climate. By acting on these recommendations, the UK Government can navigate today’s uncertain geopolitical ecosystem and equip the UK’s tech sector to be a powerful driver for a resilient and growing UK economy.  

As we move forward, techUK stands ready to work with government, our international partners, and our diverse membership of more than 1,100 companies to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of technology and digital trade. The recommendations outlined in this report provide a clear roadmap for achieving these objectives.

By maintaining our commitment to openness, innovation, and international collaboration, while building resilience where necessary, we can ensure that the UK tech sector continues to be a force for good around the world: driving growth at home and abroad, creating opportunities, and delivering solutions to global challenges.

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