Daniel Korski

Going for growth

The government says it has a growth strategy. Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference last October, the prime minister said his government would adopt a “forensic, relentless focus on growth” in the coming years.

The strategy has three elements: creating a framework for enterprise and business investment; directing resources into areas where Britain has a competitive advantage – such as wind technology; and making it easier for new companies and innovations to flourish.

But for all this and the denunciation of Gordon Brown’s legacy, the coalition still seems to be reading from a core part of Labour’s pre-crisis script: businesses are spoken of primarily as agents for social work. The accent is on how they can contribute to society in other ways than by making and spending money, creating innovations and employing people. Debates about taxation, such as they are, take place without an imperative to lower taxes to encourage entrepreneurship. And a visiting alien, after having listened to the Business Secretary, would be excused for thinking banks are only a danger to the country rather than a vital part of the economy.

Don’t get me wrong. Social work is key part of what 21st century business do. Getting companies to contribute their money, time, staff and expertise to non-profit activities is good for them and for society. But it is not their raison d’etre. Making money is and lots of it. If they do not, Britain will – quite literally – be poorer. If they feel over-taxed, they will leave, or cease to innovate or stop taking risks – and Britain will be poorer.

For that reason, ministers need to be out in front, looking at ways to make it easier to make money, whilst explaining to the public that entrepreneurship – in and of itself – is something to be treasured. Peter Mandelson was famously relaxed about people making money. The coalition needs to go further and advocate entrepreneurship, lower taxes and profit-making. And the PM needs to be as passionate about Big Bucks as he is about Big Society.

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