Building collaborative advantage for the UK long-term

At a time of geopolitical tensions, UK leaders are confronting systemic challenges that operational resilience alone won’t solve. Increasing costs, supply chain worries and squeezed margins are to the fore. But more broadly, the social contract is under strain with rising household costs and regional inequality eroding public confidence in the ability of leaders to deliver change.

The challenge facing UK leaders is not simply to react to geopolitical disruption. It is to use this moment to respond by building something more enduring: an economy grounded in sovereign capability, collaborative leadership, and trust between sectors to attract the investment needed in places across the UK to boost growth and prosperity.

From operational fix to building collaborative advantage

While the instinct in moments of volatility is to look inward - to cut costs, secure immediate supply and wait for conditions to stabilise - is understandable, it is insufficient. The UK’s long-term economic security will depend on deeper, sustained leadership and collaboration between sectors.

EY's analysis of the economics of defence makes this case powerfully, and its implications extend well beyond defence procurement. When government spending is directed towards UK-based industrial capability, channelled through supply chain partnerships and anchored in domestic innovation, the multiplier effects can be transformative. Firms which consistently invest in cross-sector relationships have reported better public policy insight, stronger supply chain intelligence, and more resilient partnerships amid periods of disruption. These are advantages that compound positively over time in ways that purely transactional engagement cannot replicate.

World-class universities anchored in the UK’s regions are another asset in this equation, not just for skills and talent pipelines, but as global investors in place. Their scientific capabilities, international networks and R&D strengths, when aligned with regional industrial strategies, become investable propositions that attract capital and anchor high-value jobs in the places that need them most.

Civil society organisations are part of that asset base too, not only as delivery partners but as originators of solutions through cross-sector collaboration in places. The Government’s Pride in Place programme in England is a spur to help demonstrate what locally rooted, cross-sector collaboration can deliver. That’s also why WIG has established a new programme in Greater Manchester to pilot a new approach to helping leaders to work across sectors in place and with Whitehall to help improve local economies and communities for regional and national benefit.

This is the logic of local and regional focus: targeted investment in industrial and human capital in places that give the UK agency in a world of contested trade routes and economic volatility. Investment decisions that span public and private capital, skills pipelines that connect education and employers, and innovation partnerships that link research institutions with manufacturers. Underpinning all of it are institutions that keep these movements grounded in the places and communities they are meant to serve.

The leadership gap that holds us back

But there is more work to be done, as the honest diagnosis of leadership data is uncomfortable. Our 2025 State of Cross-Sector Collaboration survey found that 92% of leaders say collaboration across sectors is essential for economic growth, but only 31% feel equipped to do so. That is the leadership capability gap that stands between ambition and delivery.

A study from the 2025–26 Heywood Fellowship, published by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, captures it well: the UK needs a "flotilla" approach, with government, business, universities, civil society, mayors, and regulators all moving in the same direction. Not as a criticism of how we currently operate, but as a call to navigate this moment as ‘one team’.

Our research with the Global Government Forum shows that the countries making the fastest progress, from Finland's cross-sector growth initiative to France's €54 billion investment framework and Singapore's institutionalised tripartite model, are those that have moved beyond ad hoc engagement to make cross-sector collaboration a permanent feature of how they govern and grow. They are ahead because they built the structures, incentives and leadership capability to sustain it when it gets difficult.

Delivery through cross-sector collaboration will only happen with leaders who have the skill set and mindset to work confidently across traditional divides.

Building what comes next

Leaders at our CEO-Permanent Secretary dialogues and at our Annual interview with the Cabinet Secretary last November were clear: when the government, business, education, and civil society sectors are genuinely aligned from the outset, stronger and enduring outcomes follow.

The UK has real assets to work with in terms of the rule of law, time zone, language and effective government delivering long-term public policy plans against which to invest. A modern Industrial Strategy that names its priorities. A Defence Industrial Strategy and an Infrastructure Strategy that are beginning to unlock the supply chain potential of SMEs in every region. Universities whose R&D capabilities, global talent pipelines and deep civic roots make them natural anchors for the high-growth sectors where long-term global competitive advantage will be won. Expanding devolution that brings decision-making closer to the places where investment lands. And through the Office for the Impact Economy, the beginnings of an inclusive front door for cross-sector partnership investment that builds lasting resilience.

At WIG, we are already helping build the leadership capability to deliver change. We are deepening strategic dialogue through public policy briefings and roundtables: trusted spaces where honest exchange can reshape understanding and build durable trust. We are expanding our cross-sector leadership programmes, secondments and mentoring schemes to equip today's decision-makers and cultivate the next generation. And through our Greater Manchester pilot programme, we are demonstrating that place is where national strategy meets local reality, and where the collaborative capability to deliver must be built.

The leaders, relationships and capabilities being developed now will shape the UK's ability to deliver in the future. And the work ahead, deliberate, consistent, and undertaken together, will deliver results that no sector can achieve alone. We welcome all partners who want to help shape that future for everyone’s benefit.