Britain is talking seriously about reindustrialisation again. But do we know our own industrial capabilities well enough to decide what to retain, what to build and where to invest?

In 1940, Britain had to answer a version of that question and found it couldn't. Government set up an Industrial Capacity Committee, working through regional boards and local knowledge to find unused and latent capacity across the country. Eighty years later we are asking it again, with vastly better tools and far less urgency.

Rob Gilbert argues that we still can't answer it well enough, and that this is a state capacity problem rather than a data one. He explains why deployment investment doesn't automatically create domestic industrial capability, and what better industrial intelligence would mean for four things: spending public money more precisely, commercialising British innovation, attracting international manufacturers, and connecting productive capabilities across sectors that we currently treat as separate.

Along the way: the closure of the UK's last continuous filament glass fibre plant in Wigan, the government's Global Supply Chains Intelligence Programme, and a surgical robotics exercise that found twenty-nine times as many relevant British businesses as conventional analysis.

Britain cannot manufacture everything. It has to choose. But those choices only work if we understand what this country can already make, and what it could make next.

How We Build Britain explores how Britain can rebuild its industrial strength through energy, infrastructure, investment and production.

How We Build Britain is independently produced. The views expressed are Rob Gilbert’s own and do not represent Baringa, Great British Energy or the UK Government.

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