𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀?

For me – too many of the UK’s recent economic policy announcements have been for the long term (Healthrow Ox-Cam, infrastructure, planning), or are formative and institutional (and therefore vague) – such as industrial strategy, Skills England, and local government reorganisation. A lot of the R&D announcements – are also for the very long term.

It’s good to see policies to address some long-term weaknesses like capital investment, infrastructure and productivity.

But there are very few ST/MT economic growth policies. That’s why the government is getting such a bad press on the economy right now.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵? Well one approach is to stimulate demand, or invest in supply that provides some innovation and future growth potential. Things like:

🍃 MT subsidy for green tech, goods and services: EVs, retrofit, renewable energy – speeds up scaling up the market, reduces the total cost of climate change.

🚗 ST scrappage scheme (in the form of grant towards carbon efficient replacement) for carbon emitting tech – fossil fuel vehicles, gas boilers, etc.

🚋 ST transport investments that make a big return: rail electrification and improvement e.g. Trans Pennine route; extensions of metro light rail / underground.

👩‍🚀 ST vocational, work relevant training programmes like bootcamps aimed at key skills shortages. These have been immensely popular and successful so far and should be continued.

🎇 Funding and flexibility for FE colleges and other education and training providers to provide short, modularised industry relevant training.

🕍 Grants to refurb and retrofit ageing building stock in cities and towns. There is a lot of vacant office and commercial building stock at grade B and below.

🎬 Investment in creative industries and cultural events. The UK is really good at creative industries. They also drive tourism into the UK as well as attract a lot of domestic consumer spending.

The key message here is that any government has to win 😍 hearts (by short-term gains) and 🧐 minds (by long-term change). 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 ‘𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴’ 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.