Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

UK Modern Industrial Strategy 2025: ARGA transition, corporate governance and audit reform, ESG reporting standards, and capital markets initiatives—implications for corporate lawyers

Published on: 25 June 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate expert

Legal News

Article summary

Government issues policy paper backing its Modern Industrial Strategy

What is the impact on corporate law?

The government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and the Professional and Business Services Sector Plan, both released on 23 June 2025, place a core emphasis on economic expansion and industrial revival. They also indicate a stronger commitment to ESG principles, enhanced corporate governance and regulatory overhaul—most notably via the much‑awaited shift from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA). The papers set out several regulatory measures that, while not aimed squarely at equity capital markets (ECM) reform, are intended to widen access to equity funding and deepen the UK’s capital markets.

ARGA—from proposal to implementation

Initially mooted following the 2018 Kingman Review, ARGA is poised to become the UK’s new statutory watchdog for audit and corporate governance, supplanting the FRC. The 2025 strategy underscores ARGA’s pivotal role and proposes a staged roll‑out, yet it refrains from fixing a definitive launch date. ARGA will be vested with powers to probe and penalise directors, uphold corporate reporting standards, and supervise a newly defined profession of ‘corporate auditors’...

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