Last month the final pieces from another historic pottery brand were taken to the kiln ending a 217-year production history at Denby in Derbyshire.

This is the latest in a long line of closures in the ceramic sector, a recent report citing 14 ceramic firms closing their doors in north Staffordshire, for example, between 2018 and 2024.

As one of our essential foundation industries (FIs) underpinning everyday life, ceramics form a vital component for sectors such as aerospace, defence, clean energy and electronics.

Yet, vulnerable to volatile gas and energy prices and rising employment costs the sector is struggling to survive.

Support for struggling sectors

So, the UK government's recent announcement of a £120m package of support, including £60m of capital funding for investment in new, energy efficient equipment and £60m to cover operational costs, while too late for some, has been welcomed as vital recognition for the importance of ceramics.

Another of our FIs, chemicals have also been recognised with £350m designated for a Critical Chemical Resilience Fund. This comes on the back of government support for individual plants facing closure, with the money designed to help businesses remain competitive through decarbonisation, electrification and modernisation.

The government has said it will work closely with the chemicals industry to develop the funding support, reduce regulatory costs and ensure polices deliver "...decarbonisation not deindustrialisation."

But while funding for larger businesses and projects is always welcome, a key part of the puzzle is missing - support for innovation and scale-up.

The missing part of the puzzle

Given that the majority of FIs are SMEs, what's needed is easy to access, and low bureaucracy, small value support.

We know SMEs, which make up 99 per cent of the total UK businesses, need help accessing the specialist expertise they need to innovate, grow and adapt new technologies.

Innovate UK's Business Growth Fund, which works through a voucher-type system allows SMEs and UK start-ups to do just that - apply for £15k to develop innovative products, processes of services with wraparound support, including opportunities to work with leading research and technology organisations (RTOs) like our FISC partners.

Innovate UK's predecessor, the Technology Strategy Board operated a similar scheme through Innovation Vouchers.

These fairly modest levels of investment returned outsized returns in productivity, IP creation and new product development. Independent valuations of voucher schemes in both the UK and EU show businesses doing things they wouldn't normally do rapid deployment and strong value for money compared to large grant programmes.

Innovation Vouchers could plug the gap

Vouchers provide a safe, low-risk entry point for business to innovate earlier and more often, they also fill a critical gap in the UK's current innovation landscape by enabling early-stage experimentation.

At FISC we have seen first-hand how these vouchers have helped innovators derisk early-stage innovation by working with research centres to validate ideas, test feasibility, and through Foundation Industries Ventures (FIVe) get the wrap around tailored business support they need to secure investment and plan a commercialisation strategy.

Current support mainly focusses on large collaborative R&D, capital intensive innovation and sector-specific missions. There is no national mechanism that helps SMEs access business advice, prototyping support, IP advise, design expertise and university knowledge without taking equity.

Alignment to national priorities supporting regional growth

The wider implementation of Innovation Vouchers could provide the missing link and would strengthen university-industry collaboration incentivising SMEs to work with universities, Catapults and leading research centres.

And while they could be aligned to support national priorities such as AI, digitalisation and advanced manufacturing, which are already cross-cutting themes across the FIs, vouchers are simple to apply for, quick to award and easy to administer in line with the government's commitment to cut red tape.

Lastly, we believe Innovation Vouchers would support regional growth and could be targeted to left-behind areas such as the deindustrialised north, local growth clusters, mayoral authorities and areas with low R&D activity thereby helping to increase regional capacity and place-based productivity.

Calls for a modernised voucher scheme

There are some calls for the introduction of a modernised voucher scheme including from our colleagues at Lucideon and MP Allison Gardner.

Tony Kinsella, Lucideon Group CEO, said: "It is clear that SME Companies in the UK have many calls on their time and their finances. Starting or continuing an innovation journey is a risk that many owners and directors cannot accept easily - even though they know it is the right thing to do. An Innovation Voucher, backed by some of the SME's own cash and resources, could be the catalyst for so many companies to start their journey and then build on it.

"Imagine just 1k companies taking up the offer of, for example, a £15k voucher, costing the Treasury £15m. Those companies each add £100k of revenue resulting in a £100m return for UK Plc. Corporation tax on that £100k income (assuming all margins) gives a return of £25m to the Treasury. A simplistic view maybe, but the costs of failure are low and the potential for success high. An open goal for UK Plc."

Vouchers to help energy intensive industries

Allison is a prominent supporter of innovation and industrial capability specifically referencing the ceramics industry. Perhaps unsurprisingly she represents Stoke-on-Trent, home of the ceramics industry and the centre of British ceramics for more than 300 years and home to FISC's very own Lucideon.

She has been calling on the government to release an Industrial Energy Innovation Fund for energy intensive industries like the FIs with grants to support process optimisation, pilot facilities and new technologies.

And alongside FISC and Lucideon has also been calling for the introduction of Innovation Vouchers to SMEs in energy intensive industries to access scaling and testing facilities to experiment with hydrogen, electrification and other low-carbon processes.

Allison said: "Improving energy efficiency and process optimisation is a cost‑effective route to reducing energy use and lowering bills in the near-term, whilst companies look to decarbonise in the long-term.

"Across North Staffordshire, local companies are already making progress with support from FISC, Lucideon and the AMRICC centre to adopt innovation, reduce process emissions, and through AI enabled energy optimisation."

She added: "An Industrial Energy Innovation Fund for energy intensive industries, alongside Innovation Vouchers would support decarbonisation and innovation whilst backing British manufacturing. North Staffordshire's ceramics cluster is uniquely placed to serve as a model for other hard-to-abate industries."

Published: 16-07-2026