The UK must recognise its enduring economic strengths

A decade of stagnant living standards, weak productivity and low investment combined with a coming decade of major change – driven by Covid-19, Brexit and the need for accelerated action on Net Zero – mean that it is crucial for the UK to renew its economic strategy. Josh De Lyon, Ralf Martin, Juliana Oliveira-Cunha, Arjun Shah, Krishan Shah, Gregory Thwaites, and Anna Valero argue that the UK is a services-exporting superpower, but it is not narrowly focused on finance and has strengths outside the service sector, for example in clean technologies and pharmaceuticals. A renewed economic strategy cannot ignore the UK’s history and current endowments: it needs to build on these areas of strength and protect them from new risks.