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Foreword
The UK has great
strengths, but we are now a decade and a half into a period of
stagnation. The combination of slow growth and high inequality is
proving toxic for low- and middle-income Britain, with living
standards under strain well before the cost of living crisis. The
task facing the UK is to urgently embark on a new path.
This, the Final Report of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, sets out what a
serious attempt to end Britain's relative decline looks like.
Constraints and trade-offs are examined, and hard-headed choices
made.
At its core is a strategy to reverse decades of under-investment, by
private and public sectors alike, built on a realistic understanding
of Britain's strengths. In place of nostalgia we must mobilise
behind achievable versions of the future. The UK is a services
superpower, an advantage to be built on in our great second cities.
Good quality jobs must become the deliberate objective - rather than
by-product -of our economic strategy, while our tax and benefit
systems must fairly share rewards and sacrifice, as we target
resilient public finances and rebuilt public services. Economic
change must be faced and steered to support widely shared
prosperity, as we wrestle with major shifts from Brexit to the net
zero transition.
The Economy 2030 Inquiry is a collaboration between the Resolution
Foundation and the Centre for Economic Performance at the London
School of Economics, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This Final
Report is underpinned by the Inquiry's rigorous analysis, drawing on
70 reports, as well as extensive conversations with citizens and
policy makers across the country. We thank all of those who have
contributed to this work, and in particular our commissioners and
staff for their commitment and engagement over the past two years.
Ending our stagnation
will not be easy, but is essential for our shared prosperity, and it
can be done. Now is the time for Britain to move beyond the
dead-ends of boosterism and fatalism.
It is time for a new economic strategy for Britain.
Clive Cowdery & Minouche Shafik
Co-Chairs, The Economy 2030 Inquiry
Download the Report
here in pdf format |
