Martin Wolf is right to assert the fundamental need for the UK to have an economic strategy (“The UK is in urgent need of a growth plan”, Opinion, December 12).

The UK’s current economic woes are largely due to the declining rate of innovation and competitiveness of key sectors, a problem that is common across the G7 economies.

Many countries are responding with proactive policies to stimulate and drive economic growth. Notably, the US is forging ahead with the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, designed to enable innovation and bolster competitiveness in key strategic sectors such as semiconductor technology and renewable energy. Any growth strategy for the UK should also set out clear sector-based strategies for existing and emerging high-value industries across engineering, life sciences, and data science.

The UK already has world-leading research in many of these sectors but we must do more to harness the breakthroughs and new technology that emerge, to turbocharge the economy.

Over the past year academics from Imperial College London have been considering what approaches could be deployed to boost the UK’s competitiveness and have published industry sector strategies for biopharmaceuticals, medtech and telecommunications.

To continue to support UK growth, productivity and competitiveness we are launching a new Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance, supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, which will bring together engineering and business expertise with industry and government to co-design a road map to get UK industry and economy back on track.

Professor Mary Ryan
Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College, London SW7, UK