IT Essentials: All change

Will a new government get the UK back on track?

IT Essentials: All change

Labour's general election win could mean big things for UK tech...eventually.

All change! The Tory train has reached the end of the line. Please disembark here and catch the next Labour locomotive heading your way. Ignore that both trains look similar, paint jobs are expensive. Do you think we're made of money? All change, please.

So, the UK has a new ruling party for the first time since 2010. Let's be honest, the Conservatives have been circling the drain for at least the last five years - only promises to "get Brexit done" keeping them in power through a range of progressively worse leaders.

Labour suffered the same thing towards the end of their last 13-year run. Political parties seem to have a finite amount of talent, and it all gets used up within the first five to eight years; but, that means we have at least one good term to enact real change. Hell, we might even get two.

What can we expect to see in the coming months? The manifesto contains a few pledges that will affect the tech sector - here are some educated guesses on what will come first.

3-6 months

The tech sector, unlike utilities, health and transport, is actually performing well. Although the sector has to sit at the heart of any economic recovery, it won't be a focus for Starmer's earliest days in office - we might not see anything for the industry until Autumn.

We already know Labour plans to regulate the "handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models," a change from the Conservatives' light-touch approach, and to set up a Regulatory Innovation Office to help roll out new and updated legislation more quickly. That implies AI regulation will be an early focus, and it's potentially a fast win if it draws on existing legislation like the EU's AI Act. It might be rolled into the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

Plans are likely to be rolled out on establishing a National Data Library, which will centralise data from across the public sector. That's not a small project - there have already been attempts, like the Integrated Data Service and data.gov.uk - especially considering the level of security it will need; but the sooner it's started the easier it will be to finish while Labour remains in office.

We also expect this to be when Labour starts to bring in legislation targeting Big Tech firms, as it proposed pre-election. Mind the GAAP, Meta.

6-18 months

Here's where a Labour government will have to face its staunchest opponents: the British public. Post-honeymoon period there'll be pressure on the fledgling government to fix things, and do it now.

In the mid-term, expect moves to reform procurement rules, helping the public sector cut its reliance on Silicon Valley. Labour has been vocal about its support for SMEs, and giving them greater access to government contracts would be a tremendous boost for UK tech. That said, Big Tech remains a powerful lobbying force.

This is probably also the point where we see the promised green tech investment. We don't know what form that will take, but I'd love to see something as ambitious as the USA's CHIPS Act (20 months after Biden took office), which has already generated over $200 billion in private sector investments: four times the amount the government put in.

Work will also start on reforming NHS technology, but we won't see a payout for much longer. Long-term thinking and careful investment are key here: not just handing a load of data to Palantir and hoping it all works out. Could it be another opportunity for UK SMEs? We'll have to wait and see.

18+ months

This is where Starmer's cabinet might see its first major clash with its own back bench. The government will need to deal with the serried ranks of NIMBYs - represented by their MPs - opposing plans to ease planning restrictions on new datacentres. It won't be quick or easy to get through (not even considering the strained state of the National Grid), but I'm hopeful for more long-term thinking.

So, there are my predictions for Labour's first months and years in office. On a personal level, I hope the NHS gets the technical support it desperately needs; and professionally, the green tech investment and possibility of SME support is exciting. But is there any hope of building that $1 trillion British tech company? I expect more delays than even ASLEF could deliver.

If you want even more election coverage, we've released a special bonus episode of our new podcast, Ctrl Alt Lead, where I talked to Mark Ridley (ex-CTO of Reed and fractional CIO) about his take on the Labour victory. In the latest scheduled episode I talked to ex-Very Group CIO Matt Grest about rolling out AI at scale across the online retailer, and the three main factors to consider when building an AI strategy.

Penny Horwood has written extensively about the scourge of imposter syndrome. While she focuses on the female experience, it's something that can affect everyone - so everyone can benefit from reading her excellent piece.

Depressingly, we found that Amazon was sidestepping the carbon offset standard it helped to create this week; and that Google's greenhouse gas emissions have risen by almost half since 2019, at a time when it's meant to be approaching net zero.

Finally and more encouragingly, we announced the winners of the Digital Technology Leaders Awards, who are innovating hard to make the tech sector the thrilling place to work that it is today.