The Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation document is an attempt to boost Britain’s productivity, which lags behind other EU nations.
It attempts to tackle the housing shortage by announcing a relaxing of planning rules for building on brownfield sites, addresses the supply of finance by the creation of a PRA/FCA New Bank Unit and announces the creation of a new Roads Fund from 2020-21, which would be financed from Vehicle Excise Duty, as well as a desire “to get Network Rail and the rail investment programme back on track”.
The document also repeats existing commitments to getting superfast broadband to 95% of homes and businesses by 2017, cutting red tape and the oft-quoted Northern Powerhouse, despite announcing it would suspend indefinitely plans to electrify the TransPennine line last month.
It also draws in announcements from Wednesday's Budget, on taxes, apprenticeships and the Annual Investment Allowance for SMEs.
Launching the plan with business secretary Sajid Javid in Birmingham this morning chancellor George Osborne said: “The only way to sustainably raise the living standards of the citizens of our nation is to confront the challenge of our lifetime, to raise productivity.
”This will not be achieved overnight and will require a truly national effort by government, business and working people. But with this blueprint to fix the foundations of our economy, I believe that we have taken the vital first step towards securing the prosperity and a livelihoods of generations to come”.
Javid called the plan “bold and ambitious” and said it would “achieve our vision of a more dynamic economy, with a business environment that fosters long-term investment”.
Managing director of The Tall Group Martin Ruda said the plan was “broadly positive".
“We need fast and secure connections between our sites and our customers. There’s no question that the country needs more houses and the more the government can invest in transport and infrastructure the better it will be for business," he said.
"There’s a lot to be said for the ability to grow the North but we suffer for not being able to get from west to east easily.”
The document speaks of the government’s desire for the UK to be “a trading nation open to international investment”.
BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold said his organisation would like to see more investment available to SMEs in print, as that “currently remains a challenge”.
“It’s good that the government is at least talking about training, investment and infrastructure,” he said.
“Trying to develop the road network is welcome – from an economic point of view developing a good infrastructure is probably the best thing you could do for any economy. The annual investment announcement in the budget was encouraging. We have a lot of entrepreneurial SMEs in our sector and we want to help them make the investment they need.”
He added that the print industry had been reasonably good at investing in equipment but less successful at investing in skills.
“We’re getting better on apprenticeships and training but we need to do more on local process improvement. It’s about both bringing in skilled people from outside and developing them, but also focusing on people already in the sector and looking at process improvement."
Jarrold added that high property costs were a huge problem in business.
