Results from the UK Growth Survey 2025
In 2024, with a new Government elected, we conducted our first UK Growth Survey. This was specifically commissioned to help support the growth mission, which underpins the Government's wider priorities. One year on, as the UK continues to struggle with low growth and a looming fiscal gap, we polled over 100 economists, researchers and policymakers to identify what the Government needs to do now to drive growth.
Key Findings
Our results show some key themes:
Build, build, build: Britain's economic stagnation is a crisis of building. This has its roots in our planning system, which does not enable enough development, whether it's houses in London, nuclear energy in Wales, or a metro in Leeds.
A tale of two countries: Britain has two parallel economies. London (& the Southeast) has high productivity but lacks housing, meaning workers cannot move near jobs. The rest of the country suffers from crumbling transport infrastructure, expensive energy (hampering investment in manufacturing and AI) and decades of underinvestment.
Energy is underrated but also difficult: Britain's energy costs – among the highest in the world – reduce real household incomes, hamper industry and mean we're losing out on AI investment. But there are few easy, short term fixes to reduce bills: instead the Government should take medium-term bets on new nuclear technologies, through fixing regulation, as well as expansion of grid connections and transmission.
Fiscal constraints are real, but not insurmountable: our responders were clear-headed about the lack of room for extra spending, and the need to raise revenue. They also pointed to various ways to do this: the most preferred options were property taxes and fuel duties.
There are free lunches out there: many of Britain's ills are self-imposed. Building more houses and infrastructure, attracting investment and improving market dynamism can be achieved through regulatory and legislative reforms, rather than state spending. The UK's potential for catch-up growth is enormous.
Read the full article on Centre for British Progress