Britain's productivity puzzle
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week the new UK government is unveiling its first major package of economic measures. They're aimed at achieving what Prime Minister Liz Truss says is her number one priority: promoting economic growth. Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he shares the same aspiration for Britain.
But low growth is an entrenched problem, dating back decades. So why has the UK been performing so badly and what needs to be done to turn us into a high-growth country?
Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economic History at the University of Sussex Business School. Chris Giles, Economics Editor of The Financial Times. Anna Valero, Senior Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance. Paul Johnson, Director of The Institute For Fiscal Studies Duncan Weldon, Broadcaster and Author of “Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through”.
Producers: Paul Connolly, Arlene Gregorius and Kirsteen Knight Editor: Richard Vadon Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill Production Co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed and Helena Warwick-Cross
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.9 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'onovich. The briefing room is where leading experts are warmly welcomed, then handed the task of explaining the nuts and bolts, the rhyme and sometimes reason of the day's most pressing issues. |
| 0:18.5 | This week, there's a new PM but an old but fundamental problem. |
| 0:23.0 | Why is British economic growth so low and what should be done about it? |
| 0:30.2 | The new Prime Minister has told us that her number one objective is to promote economic growth. |
| 0:36.8 | As it happens, that's also what the leader of the |
| 0:39.2 | opposition wants. But growth is low and the problem of growth is long term. So why are we performing |
| 0:46.4 | so badly and what needs to be done to turn us into a high-growth country? Step into the briefing |
| 0:52.3 | room to find out. |
| 1:02.5 | First, for a short history of post-war British economic growth. The briefing rooms, |
| 1:07.0 | Paul Connolly, has been speaking with Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economic History at the University of Sussex Business School. |
| 1:12.3 | We begin in the 1950s. |
| 1:15.1 | By now we've left the hardships of the immediate post-war period behind, |
| 1:19.6 | and things are looking up. |
| 1:21.7 | Austin, MG, Triumph, Mini, Jaguar, Dame, Princess Morris Rover. |
| 1:30.2 | In the 1950s and 1960s, we have a phase of very strong economic growth, productivity growth. |
| 1:39.3 | In the UK, for example, labour productivity grew at nearly 4% a year, about 3.9% in fact, which is the highest |
| 1:49.9 | in our economic history. |
| 1:54.2 | The growth of productivity, as in how much we produce per unit, such as per hour worked, |
| 1:59.7 | is, by the way, closely linked |
| 2:01.1 | to economic growth, the two go hand in hand. |
| 2:03.9 | It is a period where I think business is pretty optimistic, and we see a high investment rate |
... |
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