Backing Britain’s Backbone: Alderway’s Take on the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy

The UK Government’s newly-released Industrial Strategy signals a decisive shift in economic thinking. It moves beyond rhetoric and into long-term action, placing productive businesses, resilient supply chains, and regional growth at the heart of the UK’s renewal.

At Alderway, we welcome this shift. We’ve long believed that sustainable prosperity doesn’t come from speculative tech plays or unicorn chasing, but from backing profitable, proven businesses in what the government now rightly calls backbone sectors: the industries that underpin a functioning, competitive, and secure economy.

Why This Strategy Matters

The Strategy commits to a decade-long partnership between government and business. Crucially, it acknowledges the real-world constraints companies face: rising energy costs, planning delays, skills shortages, and a finance landscape skewed toward startups with pitch decks, not scale-ups with track records.

Its recognition of foundational industries - like infrastructure, energy resilience, data and power, and construction - as critical to national and economic security is particularly welcome. These are the sectors Alderway has always supported. They are rarely in the headlines, but they keep the lights on, the economy moving, and the next generation of growth possible.

Bridging the Scale-Up Gap

One of the clearest signals in the Strategy is the need to close the UK’s chronic scale-up gap. Too many high-performing small and mid-sized businesses hit a ceiling, not for lack of ambition, but because the financial ecosystem isn’t designed to support them beyond early-stage funding.

The UK has long underperformed international peers in business investment. There’s been no shortage of startup or innovation capital, but growth funding for established, profitable companies remains scarce.

Alderway sees it differently. These firms are often deeply embedded in supply chains, rooted in local economies, and led by experienced operators. With the right support, they can become the national champions of tomorrow. Helping them scale isn’t just good economics - it is essential to national resilience.

What We Support

Many of the themes in this Strategy align with our values and investment approach:

• A commitment to long-termism: A 10-year strategy, not a 10-month cycle.
  

• Support for profitable SMEs: Not just start-ups, but the companies already generating value, creating jobs, and anchoring critical supply chains.
  

• A focus on resilience: From grid access to energy costs to reshoring supply chains, this is about reducing fragility at the system level.
  

• Backing regional clusters: Growth shouldn’t require a London postcode. We’re proud to invest across the UK and welcome a strategy that fosters opportunity nationwide.

A Word of Caution

No strategy succeeds without follow-through. We urge policymakers to maintain this focus through electoral cycles and spending reviews. If capital is to align with policy, consistency and execution will be key.

Backing the Businesses That Build Britain

Alderway stands ready to partner with the founders, management teams and family owners already delivering real value in the UK economy. If the Government holds its course, this Strategy can unlock the kind of sustainable, long-term growth we exist to support.

If you’re building in a backbone sector, we’d love to hear from you.