Foreward - The Public Investment Aspiration

Following the general election of 4 July, we wish the newly-elected Government success in working towards the repair and regeneration of a British economy that has faltered so far this century. Our economic policy, or its lack, has tended to bind most obviously on investment, which has become a high hurdle for productivity improvements. Whether we look at business or public investment, the United Kingdom performs poorly relative to comparable countries and our own postwar history. Ideally, we would look to kick-start the economy and respond to years of underinvestment with a credible commitment to a programme of public investment. But we will then quickly have to face the reality that public debt is already too high for peacetime, national savings and investment too low and regional disparities have been worryingly stubborn since de-industrialisation. The Gordian Knot to confront is that we need to raise confidence and income, but we do not, at face value, have the public funds to do so.