Lessons learnt to define our future – the UK Government’s role ensuring we ‘survive & thrive’

The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on all aspects of British life has been unprecedented: personal freedoms have been restricted like never before; employment for over 6m has been completely halted; leisure and travel have ceased, almost overnight. Our very way of life as British citizens has been, effectively, put on hold during lockdown. This has all happened against a backdrop of fear and anxiety about how the UK and its citizens would endure such a traumatic shock to our accepted and treasured way of life, and what our prospects might be. And, indeed, as we start to emerge from the first nightmare scenario of lockdown, a potentially greater long-term threat has emerged - an economic recession which has the potential to be unparalleled in living, and possibly recorded, history. 

While the Government will rightly be scrutinised for the preparedness and the handling of the outbreak of Covid-19, there is now a spectre growing of equal magnitude. The Government will be punished if it now fails to deliver the right strategy to ensure that the short, sharp shock to the economy caused by the impact of Covid-19 is followed by a rebound and return to sustained GDP growth and broader prosperity. Without proactive Government action on the economy beyond bailouts, it is likely that unemployment will return to double-digit percentages of the 80s and more Britons could die from poverty from the recession than the suffering of C19.

The task facing the UK Government right now is a daunting one. While, ordinarily, in the first year of a Parliamentary term in normal times, the Government would set out its stall and tone for the length of its likely time in office, there are some severe headwinds to manage:

a.      Potentially, the deepest economic contraction since 1706 with an uncertain timeline on the return of consumer confidence and investment. 

b.      A public/media enquiry of the UK handling on Covid-19

c.      A totally different dynamic with the leader of an organised opposition who appears to be a much stronger opponent than was previously in place

So, what to do? I believe it is time for the Government to shift gears, ‘get on the front foot’ against some significant economic headwinds and take some key learnings from the handling of the Covid-19 crisis. And the place to start? With a modern day ‘Marshall’ plan for public/private partnership.

Historically, Conservatives are perceived as ‘trusted’ with the economy by the electorate, and with a healthy majority, it has a mandate to be bold, and innovative with its strategy. The Government needs a radical new plan for the economy (beyond ‘bail-outs’), with a genuine industrial strategy at its heart, that achieves the following:

·      Align new and massive public/private investments to create growth and jobs

·      ‘Level up’ opportunity by supporting the regions

·      Re-energise infrastructure

·      Address climate change commitments for net zero

·      Diligently navigate an orderly exit from the EU

·      Provide greater UK self-sufficiency and accelerated investment in future growth industries e.g. Tech/Digital/Creative (which is projected to be 50% of UK economy by 2030).

To achieve the above goals, the Government mobilisation needs to be on the scale of a modern day ‘Marshall Plan’, harnessing and unleashing private sector investment and public/private partnerships not seen since the rebuilding of Britain post WWII. The Government can include opposition parties to create national unity behind the economic plans to rebuild Britain’s prosperity inclusively and maintain the delivery of the plans for the next decade independent of party politics. Government should immediately organise itself to provide clear accountability and bringing together key Departments - HMT, BEIS, DIT, CO, DfE, Defra, DCMS, Dept of Transport with UK’s private sector, international companies, and representative business institutions. On a much smaller scale, I witnessed the success of aligning Government departments when I was Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service, so I know that change on the scale I am suggesting CAN be done. 

At the heart of any Government policy will be a UK Business Strategy & Plan that aligns public/private partnerships on high growth, high value Intellectual Property, strategic industries, unleashing the UK's historic ability to innovate and be entrepreneurial. The mobilisation needs to happen now to be proactive and accommodate post-EU Britain as an open, export-oriented, trading, high skilled, modern economy. The greatest innovation often happens at the point of maximum disruption; there is a huge opportunity for the UK, driven by Government strategy, to now burst out of the post Covid-19 environment as an agile, innovative, open and ambitious economy offering opportunity, prosperity and hope for all.  There is no time to wait.