Jeremy's Blog 10th February 2023: Government Direction

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 9th February 2023

While it seems conventional to criticise a lack of policy development, that cannot be said of the areas with which we work. The policies of the Agricultural Transition Plan were further fleshed out last month. The Environment Act, last week’s Environmental Improvement Plan and the current Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill all lay out major programmes of work. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has finally stimulated accelerating work on energy policy.

Yet, with that criticism, these may be the handful of weeks in which the Sunak Government defines whether it has a positive function beyond having brought some order to markets and public administration and the eternal task of wrestling with the turmoil of events and personalities. There are messages in this week’s reorganisation of departments and opportunities in next month’s Budget but the Government’s time is short to achieve results.

While reported as a reshuffle, Tuesday’s changes in government were, for once, far more about machinery than personalities. It is easy to mock such restructuring (“moving deck chairs on the Titanic”) which does not bring the possible political credit of a reshuffle. It comes with all the costs and disruption of initial uncertainty, systems, offices and lost time but, as challenges change, so it may be wrong to leave departments in aspic if their structure detracts from policy making.

The sprawling empire of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has been shorn of energy and innovation. It is now more focused on business and trade with a large role in the necessary task of improving business productivity and competitiveness for exports.

With its title and Grant Shapps moved across as Secretary of State from BEIS, the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, gives a focus on energy policy (with much necessary policy development now after quieter years) and climate change – and so a voice on climate change at the Cabinet table alongside DEFRA’s environmental role. Its issues and ministerial team should give it weight in government.

The new Department of Science, Innovation and Technology is the Prime Minister’s personal play for the future of our economy, going sideways since the financial crisis. It takes its title policy areas from BEIS and all or much of “Digital” from DCMS (which was once with BEIS). With a £40bn budget, a remit including life sciences and other aspects important to agriculture, it is reported to have been first offered to Michael Gove; George Freeman is likely to be an active minister. Its challenge is to have the heft and resources for such important work with results that are inevitably beyond the short term. For example, when life science laboratories near Cambridge are at a premium, will DSIT influence planning policies?

Even with straitened public finances, the Budget, five weeks away, looks to be this Government’s last chance to outline policies necessary for growth. In last year’s City of London Mais Lecture. Rishi Sunak made the argument for promoting innovation, investment and skills through tax design. We shall see if that vision is followed through, in the Budget and more broadly, with the hard work, political leadership and challenge to comfort that needs.