Growth White Paper
"Private sector growth is the best solution to addressing the UK’s fiscal deficit. Our White Paper for Sustainable Economic Growth identifies a number of areas which, if addressed, would help grow the UK economy and create jobs. Overseen by a steering group of business leaders, the paper makes 30 recommendations for Government which require neither spending increases nor tax cuts."
Baroness Jo Valentine
Chief Executive
London First
Competitiveness
London First works to ensure we have the right fiscal framework for recovery, making London’s case in government spending decisions and processes.
London has been a beacon of economic success in the last 10 to 15 years. Our businesses, led by the financial services sector, have gone head-to-head with the world’s best. Now the world has changed.
The government faces major challenges in designing policies that will both enable a return to a balanced budget and support sustainable long-term economic growth. London First’s report – Supporting UK growth while balancing the budget – summarises an approach to reconciling these two objectives from the perspective of business in London.
Key themes:
Efficiency gains should be the starting point for reducing government spending. By involving more private sector experience and expertise in delivery, substantial savings should be possible. Building on this report, we have published a further paper, A Job Worth Doing, which sets out ways of making efficiency savings in the education and skills sector.
A framework for decision making, based on robust and consistently applied cost-benefit analysis, will enhance the credibility of choices and decisions being made, where expenditure cuts prove necessary.
Maintaining planned investment in London’s transport infrastructure is critical to the country’s future growth. The committed public expenditure is substantial – but modest compared with the scale of London’s economy and the benefits it will bring to the UK as a whole. Read more in our report Greater Returns: Transport Priorities for Economic Growth (June 2010).
Tax policy – A crucial element of London and the UK’s competitiveness – must take account of the factors that underpin the capital’s success, including the highly mobile nature of money and people in and out of London and London’s role as a global business centre. Read more in our report A Balanced Tax Policy: Supporting UK Growth (June 2010).
Supporting UK growth represents the views of a steering group comprising members of London First and the City of London Corporation, co-chaired by Stuart Fraser, Chairman of Policy and Resources of the City of London, and Ian Powell, Chairman and Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
The steering group report draws on a longer report, commissioned by London First and prepared by LECG, a global expert services and consulting firm.
Supporting UK growth while balancing the budget – a report from London business
(November 2009)
Supporting UK growth while balancing the budget – LECG full report (30 October 2009)
London First Partner Perspective by Ian Powell, co-chair of the steering group and Chairman of PwC.
Please contact Jane Archer for further information.
