10 ways to promote growth

Article

A plan for growth should start by identifying what is needed for the economy to grow. The 10 measures set out here would represent a start, but more will need to be done to promote growth and ensure that the UK returns to full employment as soon as possible.

Growth in the short-term requires additional demand and only the government is in a position to provide it. Growth in the medium term requires increasing supplies of capital, labour and land, and better ways of utilising them. It will not be easy.

The government has published a Growth Review and a Plan for Growth, which it is now reviewing. But the economy is barely growing. Each of these documents suffered from the same basic weakness. Each started from a set of measures agreed between the coalition partners - cuts in corporate tax rates, an increase in the personal tax allowance, aggressive budget deficit reduction - and attempted to build a growth plan around them. This is the wrong approach.

A longer companion piece to this paper - The state of the economy - discusses the outlook for the economy, its strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats that it faces.

Related items

  1. Adults standing in a circle and talking to each other about their mental wellbeing. There is a staff member sitting to the left of them in the frame sitting next to a table. The community centre is located in Seaton Deleval in the North East of England.

    What is the left for?: The case for a politics of reciprocism

    Liberal democratic capitalism has failed to give many people good lives, and the future looks less promising than the past. 

  2. Wildfires and climate change | Dave Hawkey from IPPR Scotland speaks to Lewis Goodall on LBC

    Europe’s heatwaves and the wildfires in the Cairngorms are a stark reminder that climate extremes are here.  The Scottish government must act now with a clear plan to prepare for what's coming.

  3. “I feel quite unsettled and unsafe”: Young people, belonging, and the broken promise of childhood

    Young people in England feel less secure, supported and connected than a decade ago. Based on nearly 200 conversations, this blog explores why childhood feels more stressful and less joyful.