Forum of Private Business highlights today’s pre-Victorian era productivity levels and suggests ways to Get Britain Trading
The Forum of Private Business has today renewed its call for the government to back it’s Get Britain Trading Campaign, after new ONS data highlighted pre-Victorian era productivity levels.
According to the Office for National Statistics release, “examining UK productivity growth on a rolling 10-year basis suggests that the recent UK performance has been among the weakest since official records began and may not be comparable with any period since the early-1820s”.
Ian Cass, Managing Director of the Forum, said: “The results we see today once again highlights the real need for government support for the business community. Today we renew our call for the government to back our Get Britain Trading campaign."
A vital aspect of the campaign is the creation of a Business Partner Scheme, with members registering to host ministers, local MPs, civil servants and educational establishments.
Ian Cass added: “It’s our view that those operating the levers of power don’t fully understand the needs of the business community at the moment. With today’s ONS comments it’s time for some action.”
Notes to editors:
The six key elements are:
1. Helping to improve the performance and productivity of members
2. Re-launching the ‘Hall of Shame’ to highlight bad behaviour of UK businesses, which damage the trust and reputation of UK PLC.
3. Ethical and compliant behaviour from businesses, for which the Forum has developed an Ethical Workbook and a Compliance Handbook, both of which are being circulated to members in the coming months.
4. Creation of a Business Partner Scheme, with members registering to host Ministers, local MPs, Civil Servants and Educational Establishments to come and work within their businesses for a few hours, and gain a deeper understanding of the issues that they face on a day to day basis.
5. Provision of clear and direct feedback from members to Government with a view to ensuring all initiatives from Government are kept simple and workable.
6. Lobbying for a smooth Brexit transition and for a favourable post-Brexit business environment, across the Forum’s already issued Post Brexit Plan.
Today’s ONS data can be found here: