UK Edition
CBI calls for redoubled efforts to create jobs in North
The Government must redouble efforts to create a Northern Powerhouse that will boost jobs and opportunities for those “left behind”, the head of Britain’s biggest business group will warn this week.
Paul Drechsler, the president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), will call on policymakers and business leaders to “step up” to the challenge of closing the productivity gap between London and the rest of the UK to raise living standards across the country.
While Downing Street is focused on negotiations with Brussels on the UK’s exit from the European Union, Mr Drechsler’s speech will highlight challenges facing an economy where wage growth remains well below pre-crisis averages, almost a decade after the start of the financial crisis.
Mr Drechsler will also highlight the slow progress in closing the productivity gap between the North and South.
Almost 90 organisations, including Vodafone and Barclays, have signed up to a government scheme to create more jobs in the North.
However, Mr Dreschler will say more needs to be done to boost skills and promote entrepreneurship, nearly three years after former Chancellor George Osborne set out his vision of creating a Northern Powerhouse.
Speaking in Darlington on Wednesday, Mr Drechsler will highlight that output per hour worked is far higher in London than elsewhere in the country.
“If we could get Tees Valley’s productivity growing at the same pace as the North East’s best performing area, the Tees Valley economy could grow 12 per cent – that’s £1.4bn – by 2024. That’s a massive prize for us all to aim for,” he will say.
Mr Drechsler will urge politicians and business leaders to “step up to build the Northern Powerhouse” to give young people “the future they need”.
He will call for: “A system which gives them the skills they need. And a bigger economy which produces more jobs, so that no one’s left behind.”