Rolls Royce announcement highlights energy and infrastructure investment that UK should target post-COVID and Brexit
Commenting on news that Rolls Royce will create 6,000 jobs under plans to build 16 mini nuclear power stations, Nigel Driffield, Professor of International Business at Warwick Business School and an expert on UK regional economies, said:
"While it is undeniable that the investment climate in the UK will be challenging for at least the next two years post Brexit, the announcement by Rolls Royce highlights an example of the types of investment that the UK, its regions and investment promotion agencies should be targeting.
"While activities linked to trading with the EU are going to decline, energy, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing will still continue.
"There needs to be a more joined up approach to understanding the energy needs of business, and how all different energy sources can play a role in this.
"While dispersed manufacturing of this type is clearly good for UK regions, we need to think about how we can build supply chains here to sustain these high profile activities, and how the support for these supply chains can feed into regional productivity.
"Often the drag in the success of such investments are gaps in supply chains, and the understanding of these gaps, and how we can fill them will be crucial to the recovery and success of the UK economy post-COVID and Brexit."