Strengthening the UK’s Economic Resilience

The CBI has launched a new report, 'Strengthening the UK’s economic resilience', focused on how we can build a more effective partnership between business and government to increase the UK’s resilience.

Through globalisation, the UK’s interconnectedness with the global economy has brought significant benefits for businesses and consumers alike. Recent events, however, have demonstrated that this interconnectivity can have a profound impact on the UK economy when negative unforeseen shocks occur, and that resilience is a vital precursor to sustainable growth. A review of the UK’s resilience is expected to be published by the Cabinet Office in 2025 following this year’s Covid inquiry report, which highlighted broader lessons. The UK’s national resilience therefore embodies a burning platform for government and business and provides an imperative for both to work in lockstep to ensure resilience sits alongside the UK’s growth mission and new Industrial Strategy.

Building resilience across our economy has risen up the agenda in our mission to make the UK a more competitive place to do business. The CBI welcomes the early announcement of a resilience review by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP, and business is committed to further entrenching this across the UK economy in collaboration with government. This policy paper aims to support the review by leveraging the expertise and experience of the business community across the whole economy. It has been developed in extensive consultation with both CBI members and the relevant departments across government and recommends the following:

Being clear about government’s role to address systemic risks

The National Risk Register offers a comprehensive view of potential risks to the economy and society but lacks a strategic overview. Businesses need clear, consistent guidance from government to navigate these challenges. The current Industrial Strategy consultation provides a chance to identify the major risks to resilience that businesses will face over the next decade, offering much-needed clarity alongside the government’s growth ambitions.

The government should use the resilience review and Industrial Strategy Green Paper to work with industry on a formal ‘operating model’ for decision-making that aligns resilience with growth objectives. Building on the Theory of Change framework proposed in the Green Paper, this model could help prioritise policy decisions and resolve tensions between investment-focused and security-focused departments. Clearer engagement with businesses would ensure policy delivers both economic security and growth.

To strengthen collaboration, the government should expand the successful engagement methods used for sanctions policy to other areas, helping businesses better understand foreign policy decisions that affect their operations. As a key part of the UK’s soft power, industry offers valuable international relationships. Embedding closer cooperation between businesses and government, including the FCDO, is essential to addressing and managing risks effectively.

Harnessing collective efforts with business

As part of the wider governance on resilience, the government should consider the role and remit of a new risk committee that brings together senior cross-Whitehall resilience leads (from across specialisms including national security and economic growth) as well as senior representatives from the business and academic community. This committee would act as the overarching body on resilience, with sector/topic-specific bodies created on an ad-hoc basis where necessary. The remit of this committee would be to monitor and develop mitigation strategies for current and emerging risks.

Building effective public-private partnerships is critical to ensure that businesses across the economy are protected against risks. In some areas, the UK insurance industry has been able to develop efficient solutions already. Adapting these successful public-private systems to new risk areas, including security issues, and simultaneously updating insurance schemes is essential to building a resilient economy. The government should continue working in partnership with the insurance industry to deploy effective schemes, widening their scope and therefore helping companies to be more resilient.

Helping businesses build operational resilience

The government’s review of national resilience and the Industrial Strategy should address market failures in resilience investments and tackle information gaps by:

• Expanding training options (e.g., apprenticeships, bootcamps) with flexible, modular formats, using the Growth and Skills Levy to incentivise employer investment in skills
• Positioning the Resilience Academy as a cross-sector hub for information sharing
• Investigating gaps in finance access for resilience investments and exploring funding solutions to help firms build resilience and manage shocks. The CBI is ready to support this work to ensure businesses can secure the resources they need
• Establishing a streamlined mechanism for timely risk information sharing with businesses, ensuring effective two-way communication between government and industry