Both main parties say they want to see much faster growth rates for the UK economy. Higher growth, in their telling, leads to higher government revenues, better services, higher living standards and better options for a Treasury whose spending power is now highly constrained. But the UK’s growth record since the 2008 financial crisis has been weak, productivity and real wages have remained stagnant, and there are divergent accounts of the policies necessary to see us out of our current malaise. Spotlight approached two esteemed economists, Mariana Mazzucato and Jim O’Neill, as well as the director of a leading think tank, Sebastian Payne, to canvass their views on the policies needed for growth. Their responses are recorded below.
Jim O’Neill, Life peer, former minister and ex-Goldman Sachs economist
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