How thriving cities can unlock productivity | Sponsored
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Economic growth in the UK is stagnating. Can a radical reshaping of private and public sector roles in core cities help unlock productivity and prosperity in Britain?
The latest in our Spotlight on Policy series welcomes the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, the CEO of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan, and PwC’s Public Sector expert Katie Johnston, to explore the role cities can play in boosting Britain’s productivity.
This episode is sponsored by PwC.
Download the Good Growth for Cities report here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/government-public-sector/good-growth.html
View the PWC productivity tracker: https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/insights/productivity-tracker/regional.html
Find out more about the UK Urban Futures Commission: https://www.thersa.org/projects/uk-urban-futures-commission
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman |
| 0:02.0 | Statesman podcast from the New Statesman Spotlight team. |
| 0:18.0 | We cover policy for those who shape it and the businesses it affects. |
| 0:22.0 | I'm Becky Slack. |
| 0:23.0 | In this episode we're discussing productivity. |
| 0:29.0 | Productivity is the key to unlocking greater |
| 0:34.4 | prosperity in cities. For businesses, increasing workers productivity |
| 0:38.4 | leads to higher profitability, wages, and economic growth. For public sector organisations, it leads to better public services, value for money for the taxpayer, and a happier, healthier population. |
| 0:50.0 | But economic growth in the UK is stagnating. |
| 0:53.0 | While the world has faced many shocks in recent decades, |
| 0:55.0 | including the global financial crash, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, |
| 0:59.0 | the UK's recovery has been particularly sluggish. |
| 1:02.0 | Both wage and productivity growth are among the |
| 1:04.4 | slowest for G7 countries, according to figures from PWC. So what can we do to boost the |
| 1:10.5 | prosperity of the UK cities. This episode is sponsored by |
| 1:14.5 | PWC one of the world's leading professional services firms. |
| 1:19.8 | Joining me from PWC is Katie Johnston, a partner at the firm and a |
| 1:26.9 | specialist in public services and local government. Also on the panel we have |
| 1:31.3 | Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol and Tom Reardon, CEO of Leeds City Council. |
| 1:38.0 | Welcome to you all. |
| 1:40.0 | I'm going to start with an open-ended question. |
| 1:42.0 | How would you define productivity? |
... |
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