Industrial strategy challenge fund ‘insufficiently focused’, say MPs

£3 billion fund “too focused on inputs, ticking boxes and distributing funds, rather than outcomes”

Greater clarity is needed on what the government’s flagship £3 billion Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is trying to achieve, a report from the Public Accounts Committee has concluded.

The fund is “insufficiently focused on what it is expected to deliver in terms of benefit to the UK” and its objectives “do not give an indication of whether the fund as a whole is making a difference”, said the committee’s 30 April report.