Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The UK Department of Health and Social Care, delivered via Innovate UK, awarded more than GBP 54 million in government funding across eight R&D projects on 18 November 2025 through the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme, matched by more than GBP 20 million from industry (combined GBP 74m+). The programme is funded through the GBP 400 million VPAG Investment Programme, agreed under the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG), and supports the manufacturing pillar of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy Life Sciences Sector Plan. Funded projects include anaesthetic gas recovery/recycling (targeting ~GBP 5m annual NHS savings), converting spent nuclear fuel into radionuclide cancer therapies, CAR-T cell manufacturing scale-up (Royal Free Hospital), engineered bacteriophages for antibiotic resistance, and an AstraZeneca-led "Sustainable Future Factory" AI/robotics initiative.

The UK government confirmed Wylfa on Anglesey, North Wales as the site for the country's first government-backed small modular reactor (SMR) power station, committing over GBP 2.5 billion (~USD 3.3bn) to the programme via state-owned developer Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N). GBE-N named Rolls-Royce SMR as preferred bidder, with an initial three-reactor deployment (scope for five more) targeting grid connection by the mid-2030s and up to 1.5GW of capacity — enough to power roughly three million homes. Site work is set to begin in 2026, subject to final government approvals and contract signature.

The UK's National Wealth Fund (NWF), the state-owned economic development bank, committed GBP 25 million (USD 32.8 million) of debt financing to Roam, a Denham Capital-backed EV charge-point operator, as part of a GBP 65 million debt-raise announced 12 November 2025 alongside NatWest and Triodos Bank UK. The financing supports Roam's pipeline to deploy 40,000 AC "destination" fast-charging points (workplaces, hotels, residential buildings, retail), up from roughly 3,000 installed at announcement.

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), a public financial institution wholly owned by the Scottish Government, committed GBP 45 million (~USD 59.2 million) as part of a GBP 130 million funding round for Highview Power's 3.2 GWh hybrid long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility at Hunterston, North Ayrshire. Co-investors include Centrica, Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI and Mosaic Capital. Phase one (a grid-stability "island" providing inertia and short-circuit support) is targeted for completion by January 2028, with the full hybrid liquid-air/lithium-ion storage facility operational by 2030. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked equity-stake intervention.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care updated its list of medicines that cannot be parallel-exported from the UK or hoarded, adding Nelarabine (250mg/50ml solution for infusion vials, used in leukaemia/lymphoma treatment) and removing ten products including Atracurium, Cisatracurium and Erythromycin, effective 6 November 2025. The restriction is issued under regulation 43(2) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to protect domestic patient supply; breach constitutes a wholesale dealer licence violation enforceable by the MHRA with licence suspension. This is one of the DHSC's routine multi-times-per-year revisions to a standing list rather than a one-off policy action.

Bpifrance Assurance Export, France's state export credit agency, guaranteed GBP 5 billion (~EUR 5.68bn) of lending arranged by a pool of 13 international banks (HSBC Corporate and Institutional Banking as lead/coordinator) to support the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England. The guarantee covers up to 95% of the non-payment risk on export contracts held by French companies (led by EDF, a Sizewell C equity partner) involved in the project. It was announced alongside the project's financial close on 4 November 2025, complementing a GBP 36.6bn term loan facility from the UK's National Wealth Fund that forms the bulk of the project's debt financing.

On 19 October 2025 the UK government announced an additional GBP 20 million each for Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and Glasgow City Region under the GBP 500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), topping up their original GBP 30 million earmarked allocation (June 2025 Spending Review) to GBP 50 million per region. The three areas were the first cohort to run UKRI's predecessor Innovation Accelerators programme. Funds are channelled through UKRI to local "triple helix" partnerships (civic institutions, business, universities) for innovation-cluster projects in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, AI adoption, and clean-energy/fuel technologies. The announcement preceded the 21 October 2025 Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10984 "Adjusting Imports of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Parts, and Buses Into the United States" on 17 October 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of Class 3 to Class 8 medium- and heavy-duty trucks (large pick-up trucks, moving trucks, cargo trucks, dump trucks, tractors) and on key MHDV parts, and a 10% ad valorem tariff on buses and other vehicles classified in HTSUS heading 8702. Duties take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on 1 November 2025 (Federal Register doc 2025-19639, 90 FR 48451, published 22 October 2025). USMCA-qualifying MHDVs are tariffed only on the value of non-U.S. content; the proclamation also establishes an offset programme for MHDV parts equal to 3.75% of the aggregate value of all MHDVs assembled in the United States from 2025 through 2030, mirroring the Proclamation 10925 light-vehicle offset architecture.

The UK Department for Business and Trade announced on 15 October 2025 a GBP 15 million grant, administered via the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)'s Collaborative R&D competition under the DRIVE35 programme, toward a GBP 30 million project led by Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) to assess the feasibility of a lightweight L6e-category battery-electric micro-mobility vehicle. The consortium includes lightweight-EV specialist ELM, solar-technology firm Savcor, and the University of Derby, with manufacturing feasibility centred on TMUK's Burnaston site. The vehicle concept features an integrated solar roof, enhanced connectivity, and lightweight recyclable materials.

On 15 October 2025 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated 39 entities and specified 51 vessels — including, for the first time, Russia's two largest integrated oil majors PJSC Rosneft Oil Company and PJSC Oil Company Lukoil — for supporting Russia's energy, defence and financial sectors. 51 vessels (44 identified as "shadow fleet" tankers) were specified for transporting Russian crude oil and LNG in evasion of the G7 price cap. The package also introduced a ban on importing oil products refined in a third country from Russian-origin crude, closing a refined-product loophole in the price-cap regime.

The UK Office for Life Sciences (OLS) launched the Life Sciences Large Investment Portfolio (LSLIP), a subsidy scheme worth up to GBP 570 million running from implementation in November 2025 to March 2030. The scheme provides direct grants, capped at GBP 130 million per award, to UK-registered private-sector companies committing to invest GBP 250 million or more over three years in domestic manufacturing or commercial R&D across three subsectors: human medicines (APIs and finished products), medical diagnostics, and MedTech. The scheme was referred to the CMA's Subsidy Advice Unit on 21 August 2025, which published its advisory report on 2 October 2025 ahead of the scheme's launch.

The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Office for Life Sciences launched the Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment Fund (TRIF) Pilot, a GBP 50 million (approx. USD 67.4 million) capital grant scheme for large-scale R&D projects in the life sciences sector. Only projects with total costs of at least GBP 100 million qualify, with grants typically covering 10-20% of total project costs. The pilot runs on a rolling-application basis until 31 March 2028 or until funding is exhausted.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement on 2025-07-25 (announced 2025-09-24) providing GBP 54 million toward a total co-financed package of GBP 90 million (with a private financial institution) for Sumitomo Electric U.K. Power Cables Ltd. (SEUK-CL), the UK subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (Japan). The facility finances SEUK-CL's manufacturing and sale of submarine transmission cables in Scotland. JBIC framed the loan around the UK's offshore-wind buildout (Scotland targets up to 11 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030) and the UK's position as Europe's largest submarine-cable market, alongside Sumitomo Electric's own Mid-Term Management Plan priority of expanding high-voltage direct-current cable capacity in Europe.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF) announced a commitment of up to £31 million as part of a £35 million equity funding round for Cornish Lithium, with the remaining £4 million from existing investor TechMet. The capital is earmarked to advance the Trelavour Lithium Project toward a construction decision and the Cross Lanes Geothermal Lithium Project toward commercial drilling, both in Cornwall, England. The round is NWF's second equity investment in Cornish Lithium following an initial commitment in August 2023, and is conditional on shareholder approval, UK Takeover Panel sign-off, and clearance under the National Security and Investment Act 2021.

On 19 September 2025 (Communiqué CM N°2025-39/SGG), Mali's Council of Ministers, chaired by General Assimi Goïta, adopted four exploitation-phase "conventions d'établissement" operationalising the 2023 Code Minier (Loi n°2023-040) against named foreign-operated mines: Lithium du Mali S.A. (Goulamina, Ganfeng Lithium), Les Mines de Lithium de Bougouni-S.A. (Foulaboula, Kodal Minerals), SEMOS-S.A. (Sadiola gold, Allied Gold) and SOMISY-S.A. (Syama gold, Resolute Mining). Each convention raises the State's shareholding to 35% (a free non-contributory 10% carry plus up to 25% acquired, of which 5% is reserved for Malian private investors) and converts the stakes into non-contributory, non-dilutable participations carrying priority-dividend rights.

On 19 September 2025 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office designated two Georgian nationals — Otar Partskhaladze and Levan Vasadze — and two companies, UK-based Aeza International Ltd and Russia-based HeliCo Group LLC, under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, citing their roles in supporting Russian disinformation and Georgia's Kremlin-aligned political network. In the same package OFSI proscribed two oil tankers, Bavly and Karakuz, for allegedly delivering Russian-origin crude to the port of Batumi, Georgia, barring both vessels from UK ports and the UK Ship Register. Designated individuals face asset freezes, travel bans and director-disqualification sanctions.

Innovate UK, co-funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), opened a GBP 7.8 million competition on 15 September 2025 under the Farming Innovation Programme's industry-led R&D Partnerships Fund ("Small R&D Partnership Projects", Round 4). The competition funds collaborative agri-tech R&D projects with total eligible costs of GBP 1-3 million each, aimed at improving productivity, sustainability, resilience and net-zero transition for English farmers, growers and foresters. It is open to UK businesses of any size, provided the collaboration includes at least one SME and no single partner exceeds 70% of eligible costs; the competition closed for applications on 5 November 2025.

Qatar's Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) issued Circular No. (3) of 2025, barring car dealerships, showrooms and other commercial exporters from re-exporting new vehicles that have not completed at least one year of domestic registration. The measure targets re-export arbitrage by dealers that was reducing new-car availability and pushing up prices in the local market; authorised dealers and vehicles bought for personal use are exempt. MoCI subsequently adopted, in coordination with the General Authority of Customs (GAC), an executive mechanism clarifying that vehicles imported from a country other than the manufacturing country (and therefore outside Qatar's manufacturer-allocation quota) may still be re-exported.

On 12 September 2025 the UK government, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated 3 individuals and 27 entities — 19 Russian, plus third-country intermediaries in Thailand (3), Hong Kong (3), India (1) and Türkiye (1) accused of supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used in Russian missile and weapons production — and proscribed 70 vessels (oil tankers and cargo ships, identified by IMO number) linked to Russia's shadow fleet evading the G7 crude price cap. The package brings the UK's cumulative tanker designations to nearly 500, more than any other single jurisdiction.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, committed up to £200 million in equity alongside a matching commitment from US investor EIG as part of a £445 million equity round for Fidra Energy. The capital, together with £594 million in loan facilities from a club of international lenders, financed the roughly £1 billion financial close of the 1,400 MW / 3,100 MWh Thorpe Marsh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Doncaster, England — billed as the UK's largest battery storage project and among the largest in Europe, expected to be operational by mid-2027.

The British Business Bank, the UK government's economic development bank, announced an GBP 8 million equity investment into NRG Therapeutics Ltd on 8 September 2025 as part of an oversubscribed GBP 50 million (USD 67 million) Series B financing round. NRG Therapeutics develops small-molecule mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) inhibitors for neurodegenerative diseases including ALS/MND and Parkinson's. The round was led by SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund, with participation from M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Criteria Bio Ventures, and existing investors Omega Funds and Brandon Capital; a British Business Bank representative joined NRG's board.

On 8 September 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence published the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 — "Making Defence an Engine for Growth" (CP 1388) — the first comprehensive cabinet-level UK defence industrial strategy in over a decade and the sector plan for Defence under the UK Modern Industrial Strategy umbrella (IS-8). The strategy was published alongside the Strategic Defence Review 2025 and operationalises the largest sustained defence- spending increase since the Cold War (rising to 2.6% of GDP by 2027 with ambition to 3% in the next Parliament). It defines six priority outcomes (growth, backing UK businesses, defence innovation, resilient industrial base, procurement transformation, enduring partnerships); establishes UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) within the MOD with a ringfenced £400m budget to accelerate dual-use technology; identifies priority defence capabilities (combat air, complex weapons, directed-energy weapons, next- generation land and maritime systems) plus dual-use sub-sectors (quantum, drones/autonomy, space, AI, cyber, engineering biology, advanced connectivity); and flags resilience priorities in steel, construction, energetic materials, batteries, semiconductors and rare earths.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, committed up to £200 million as part of a £500 million platform launched with infrastructure manager Equitix and Australian pension fund Aware Super. The platform, operated by Eelpower Energy, will build, own and operate grid-scale battery energy storage (BESS) assets, targeting over 1GW of new UK storage capacity, starting with seed assets already entering construction.

On 20 August 2025 the UK government, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated three individuals and five entities — OJSC Capital Bank of Central Asia, Grinex LLC, CJSC Tengricoin, Old Vector LLC (all Kyrgyzstan-based) and Altair Holding SA (Luxembourg-based) — for helping Russia evade Western financial sanctions via opaque Kyrgyz banking channels and cryptocurrency rails. The designations target the A7A5 rouble-backed stablecoin network, which the FCDO says moved USD 9.3bn in transactions over four months, and the Grinex/Meer crypto exchanges used to convert and route the proceeds; designated parties face UK asset freezes and trust-services prohibitions.

On 13 August 2025 Scottish Enterprise published the Capital Investment Scheme 2025-2035, a GBP 1.8 billion (approx. USD 2.4 billion) discretionary subsidy framework running until 31 December 2035 that funds capital investment grants to businesses of all sizes across all sectors of the Scottish economy, with individual awards capped at GBP 15 million. The scheme operates under the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022 and is awarded on a discretionary, merit-assessed, due-diligence basis rather than as an entitlement.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, made a £50 million (c. $66.4m) equity investment in AMP Clean Energy, backing the Asterion Industrial Partners-owned developer's rollout of "Battery Box" micro-scale battery storage sites connected to local distribution networks near demand centres (homes, schools, hospitals) across England, Scotland and Wales. The deal is intended to strengthen local grid flexibility and support industrial decarbonisation, and is explicitly tied to the government's Clean Power 2030 mission.

On 30 July 2025 the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, published a civil monetary penalty of £300,000 against Markom Management Limited (MML UK), a London-incorporated provider of corporate-services and management functions to its parent Markom Management Cyprus. The penalty (decision dated 10 January 2025) relates to MML UK instructing the transfer of £416,590.92 from a Moscow-based bank account of its parent's client to a person designated under an EU Regulation 269/2014 asset freeze (Russia/Crimea-related), at a time when MML UK had knowledge of the recipient's designated status. OFSI initially proposed £400,000; MML's representations secured a reduction to £300,000, which was subsequently upheld on ministerial review under s.147 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017. At the time of publication this was the third-largest OFSI civil monetary penalty imposed since the powers were introduced under Part 8 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, and the twelfth use of those powers in total.

On 28 July 2025 the Welsh Government published the formal UK subsidy control registration (subsidy reference SC11324) for the Integrated Natural Resources Scheme (INRS), a GBP 10 million grant programme under the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023 that funds collaborative land-management projects by groups of farmers, foresters and land managers. Individual project-delivery grants range from GBP 250,000 to GBP 1,000,000 for activities such as woodland creation, natural flood-risk management, wetland and habitat restoration, and water-quality improvement. The scheme runs 19 December 2024 to 31 March 2028 and is designed to feed into the Collaborative Layer of the wider Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), which replaced the EU-era Basic Payment Scheme.

India and the UK signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on 24 July 2025 in Chequers, with Prime Ministers Modi and Starmer presiding. The agreement grants duty-free access on 99% of Indian exports to the UK (textiles, apparel, footwear, auto components, engineering goods and chemicals), and reduces Indian tariffs on UK goods covering ~90% of tariff lines: Scotch whisky duties drop from 150% to 75% on day one and taper to 40% over ten years; high-end UK car tariffs fall from ~110% to 10% under a quota; UK MFN access on a wide industrial-goods envelope. A Double Contribution Convention exempts Indian secondees from UK National Insurance for three years. Bilateral trade currently ~£42 bn / USD 56 bn per year, with the parties targeting doubling by 2030. UK ratification under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) ran from January 2026, with the 21-sitting-day scrutiny period concluding 5 March 2026. Entry into force was delayed from the originally targeted May 2026 date and is now confirmed for July 15, 2026 following a UK Prime Minister announcement at the G7 Évian summit sidelines on June 17, 2026. The confirmed EIF covers 64% of UK exports (£1.9bn) duty-free immediately, with an additional £25.5bn/year in projected additional bilateral trade.

The UK's National Wealth Fund, the state-owned investment bank, committed a term loan facility of up to GBP 36.6 billion to finance construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk. The facility forms the bulk of the project's construction-phase debt, alongside a GBP 5bn Bpifrance Assurance Export-guaranteed loan tranche from a French bank pool. It was announced on 22 July 2025 alongside the UK government's 44.9% equity stake in the project as its largest shareholder.

On 21 July 2025 the UK announced 137 new sanctions designations under its Russia regime, targeting 135 oil tankers identified as part of Russia's "shadow fleet" plus two enabling companies: Litasco Middle East DMCC (a Dubai-based trading arm linked to Lukoil, sanctioned for moving Russian oil on shadow-fleet vessels) and Intershipping Services LLC (sanctioned for registering shadow-fleet vessels under the Gabonese flag). FCDO states the targeted vessels have carried an estimated $24 billion of cargo since the start of 2024, and that Intershipping's flag-registration activity has enabled up to $10 billion/year in Russian state-linked shipping. The action was announced alongside a further lowering of the UK/EU Crude Oil Price Cap and runs as a companion measure to the EU's 18th sanctions package (Council Regulation 2025/1494), adopted three days earlier.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care added five tuberculosis-treatment antimicrobials to its list of medicines that cannot be parallel-exported from the UK or hoarded, effective 17 July 2025: Rifampicin capsules/powder and solvent for infusion (all strengths), Pyrazinamide 500mg tablets, Rifampicin + Isoniazid 300mg/150mg tablets, Rifampicin + Isoniazid + Pyrazinamide 120mg/50mg/300mg tablets, and Voractiv tablets (all strengths). The restriction is issued under regulation 43(2) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012; breach constitutes a wholesale dealer licence violation enforceable by the MHRA with licence suspension.

The UK's National Wealth Fund, the state-owned investment bank, provided GBP 25 million in debt financing to Osprey Charging, one of the UK's largest public EV rapid-charging networks, to accelerate its rollout of super-fast charging hubs. The NWF tranche forms part of Osprey's wider GBP 110 million multi-bank fundraise, alongside Novuna Business Finance, Societe Generale and Aldermore. It was announced on 15 July 2025.

The UK Department for Business and Trade launched DRIVE35 on 13 July 2025, a GBP 2.5 billion decade-long programme of capital and R&D funding for zero-emission-vehicle (ZEV) manufacturing and its supply chain, comprising GBP 2 billion of capital investment through 2030 and a further GBP 500 million in R&D funding through 2035. As part of the launch, the government announced over GBP 300 million in initial support for named automotive projects, including more than GBP 100 million for Astemo Ltd in Bolton for EV component production (over 220 direct jobs) and GBP 15 million for Dana in the West Midlands for EV parts production (over 100 jobs). DRIVE35 is administered via APC-run competitions (Scale-up Fund, Innovation Fund) open to companies across the automotive supply chain from start-ups to global manufacturers.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) issued a EUR 146 million (USD ~170m) Buyer Credit Guarantee to support Orsted's Greater Changhua 2 offshore wind farm off Taiwan (632 MW capacity), co-financed alongside export credit agencies from Denmark, Norway, South Korea and Taiwan and a 25-bank commercial syndicate led by Credit Agricole CIB. The guarantee is conditioned on the project procuring specialised services and components from named UK exporters (Cadeler, CRP Subsea, Ordtek, Cathie), making it a local-value-added-linked export-credit instrument rather than untied project finance.

The UK's National Wealth Fund made a GBP 28.6 million equity investment in Peak Cluster, a CO2-transport pipeline connecting cement and lime producers in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and North West England to the Morecambe Net Zero offshore CO2 store in the Irish Sea. The investment is designed to unlock a further GBP 31 million from private partners Holcim, Tarmac, Breedon, SigmaRoc, Summit Energy Evolution and Progressive Energy, bringing total project equity to GBP 59.6 million. The pipeline is intended to decarbonise around 40% of the UK's cement and lime industry, preventing an estimated 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year and supporting roughly 3,500 jobs (2,000+ existing, ~300 new manufacturing, ~1,200 temporary construction), rising to 13,000 combined with the linked Morecambe Net Zero CO2-storage project.

On 3 July 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a network of UAE- and UK-based companies controlled by Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said that has smuggled Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi crude since at least 2020, plus five additional shadow-fleet vessel owners based in Seychelles, the Marshall Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. The action, taken pursuant to E.O. 13902 (Iran petroleum sector) and E.O. 13224 (counterterrorism), also identifies several tankers as blocked property and marks the eighth round of sanctions under National Security Presidential Memorandum 2's Iran maximum-pressure campaign. Concurrently, the State Department designated six additional entities and four vessels under E.O. 13846.

On 1 July 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Aeza Group, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) provider, along with two affiliated companies and four Aeza Group leaders (Arsenii Penzev, Yuri Bozoyan, Vladimir Gast, Igor Knyazev), for supplying server infrastructure that shielded ransomware operators, infostealer groups, and darknet drug marketplaces from law-enforcement takedown. In coordination with the UK's National Crime Agency, OFAC also designated Aeza International Ltd., a UK front company Aeza used to lease IP addresses to cybercriminals. The action was taken under Executive Order 13694 (as amended by E.O. 14144 and E.O. 14306) and builds on OFAC's February 2025 designation of BPH provider ZServers.

The UK Department for Business and Trade, with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, published "The UK's Modern Industrial Strategy" (Command Paper CP 1451) on 23 June 2025, laid before Parliament via Written Statement HCWS725. It is the first cross-economy industrial strategy under the Starmer Labour government and replaces the 2017 Industrial Strategy (withdrawn in 2021). It sets a ten-year horizon focused on business investment, productivity and resilience, designates eight priority growth sectors ("IS-8"), and packages instruments including British Business Bank capacity expansion, the National Wealth Fund's GBP 27.8bn envelope, a permanent statutory Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, planning and skills reforms, and sector-specific Sector Plans published alongside.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, committed £50 million as part of a wider capital raise for Wessex Internet, a regional full-fibre operator serving rural Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The financing, alongside existing shareholder Aberdeen Investments and an extended Triodos loan, backs Wessex's expansion from roughly 40,000 to 137,000 connected premises and underpins £72 million of BDUK Project Gigabit subsidy contracts already awarded to the company.

On 17 June 2025, at the Paris Air Show, the UK Department for Business and Trade announced over £250 million in joint government-and-industry funding for green aerospace research and technology projects, drawn from a £975 million allocation to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme for 2025-2030. The tranche covers 11 major projects plus 18 smaller initiatives, led by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Intelligent Energy, targeting hydrogen propulsion, additive manufacturing and engine-efficiency technologies aimed at net-zero aviation.

On 12 June 2025 the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced approximately GBP 200 million (subject to business case) in development funding for the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, and for National Gas's SCO2T Connect pipeline, which repurposes 175 miles of existing gas pipeline plus 35 miles of new-build pipeline to carry CO2 captured at Grangemouth to North Sea storage. The award forms part of a wider GBP 9.4 billion Spending Review 2025 commitment to carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), alongside a parallel award to the Viking CCS project in the Humber. Government cites up to 15,000 jobs at Acorn's peak construction and the safeguarding of an estimated 18,000 existing North Sea jobs.

In the Spending Review 2025 (delivered 11 June 2025), HM Treasury committed "over £2.5 billion" for nuclear fusion, explicitly including support for the UK's STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme to design and build a prototype fusion power plant on the site of the former West Burton A coal power station in Nottinghamshire. The commitment covers the multi-year Spending Review period and is administered through the UK Atomic Energy Authority. STEP construction is expected to begin in the 2030s, with first operations targeted for 2040, and the government cites over 10,000 jobs supported by the programme.

The UK Trade Remedies Authority initiated antidumping investigation AD0071 on 6 June 2025 into hot-rolled steel plate (flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, 600mm+ width, hot-rolled, not clad/plated/coated, not in coils, 4.75mm+ thickness) originating in South Korea, following an application by UK producer Spartan UK Ltd. The TRA found South Korean imports grew from ~14,000 tonnes in 2021 to over 40,000 tonnes the following year. In April 2026 the TRA published its Statement of Essential Facts proposing duties of 7.04%-22.27% on narrow plates (600mm-2500mm width) — its preferred option — or 5.98%-24.28% if applied to the full scope, after an Economic Interest Test found full-scope duties would harm UK downstream sectors (renewable energy, shipbuilding, defence) reliant on wider-plate imports.

The UK Ministry of Defence announced a £5 billion technology investment package to accelerate domestic defence innovation, split between more than £4 billion (including over £2 billion in new funding) for autonomous systems and nearly £1 billion this Parliament for directed-energy weapons (DEW). The package funds acceleration of the DragonFire high-power laser toward fielding on Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers from 2027, establishment of a new Drone Centre to speed deployment of small uncrewed air systems informed by lessons from Ukraine, and is projected to create 300 skilled jobs on top of 200 already supported by DEW work. The announcement followed the government's Strategic Defence Review published the same day, which recommends UK forces adopt unmanned and autonomous systems at scale over the next five years.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) approved export credit support with a maximum liability of approximately GBP 245 million (USD ~333m) for Cathay Wind Power Co Ltd, borrower for the Greater Changhua 4 (Northwest) offshore wind farm off Taiwan's western coast (42 x 14MW turbines, 583MW grid capacity; project company Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Farm NW Ltd, jointly owned by Orsted Wind Power TW Holdings A/S and Cathay Wind Power Co Ltd). The support covers construction services and equipment, with UK content supplied by Seajacks (installation vessel charter) and CRP Subsea (cabling), making it a local-value-added-linked export-credit instrument rather than untied project finance.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) confirmed support with a maximum liability of approximately GBP 98.5 million (~USD 132m) for Iraq's Five Substations Project, categorised as a Category B (site-specific environmental/social impact) transaction. The guarantee backs a Standard Chartered-arranged facility to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance financing UK Grid Solutions Limited (a GE Vernova subsidiary) to design, supply, construct, install, test and commission five new electrical substations — New Al Rifai, Al Rumaitha, North Kirkuk, Al Khalidiya South and Al Sawada — as part of Iraq's Ministry of Electricity national grid development plan.

On 20 May 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/965 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/966, implementing the EU's dedicated hybrid-threats restrictive- measures regime (Regulation (EU) 2024/2642) rather than the sectoral Russia sanctions track. The package designates 21 individuals and 6 entities for enabling Russian state-sponsored destabilising activity, including information manipulation and interference and cyberattacks against the EU and its partners. Named entities include Stark Industries Solutions Ltd (UK-registered "bulletproof" web-hosting provider used as infrastructure for Russian cyberattacks) and its owner/CEO Ivan and Iurie Neculiti, Czech-based pro-Kremlin media outlet Voice of Europe, and Turkish media company AFA Medya and its founder Hüseyin Doğru. Designated parties are subject to an EU-wide asset freeze and prohibition on making funds available; designated individuals additionally face a travel ban. This is a distinct legal instrument from the same-day 17th Russia sectoral sanctions package (Regulation (EU) 2025/932/933), adopted under the separate hybrid- threats horizontal regime.

The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology signed a grant agreement with BioNTech UK Ltd. providing up to GBP 129 million in government support over 10 years, underpinning BioNTech's planned GBP 1 billion (USD 1.3 billion) investment in UK research and development over the same period. The funding backs two new R&D hubs: a life-sciences research centre in Cambridge (genomics, oncology, structural biology, regenerative medicine) and an AI hub co-located with BioNTech's planned UK headquarters in London, run by its InstaDeep subsidiary. The government frames the deal as one of the largest single-company investments in UK life-sciences history and part of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and Plan for Change industrial strategy.

On 20 May 2025 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated the UK Sanctions List, adding 82 entries (20 individuals and 62 entities) under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. OFSI's accompanying Financial Sanctions Notice confirms all 82 are now subject to an asset freeze and trust services sanctions. The package covers three clusters: further members of the Kremlin-linked Social Design Agency (SDA) disinformation network (first designated in 2024); Russian financial institutions including the St Petersburg Currency Exchange, the Petersburg Settlement Center, and the State Corporation Deposit Insurance Agency; and individuals and companies supporting Russia's oil "shadow fleet" logistics, including a British national accused of ship procurement and two tanker captains. The measures were published in coordination with the EU's 17th sanctions package, announced the same day.