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.

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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.