United Kingdom: Productivity

Baroness Harding of Winscombe Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Harding of Winscombe (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure and honour to speak in this debate. I must declare an interest not in either football or cricket but as the chief executive of TalkTalk, the ISP, and as a non-executive director on the Court of the Bank of England.

I welcome not only this debate but the renewed focus across the Government on productivity. I take a moment to remind ourselves why raising productivity is such a good thing. History is littered with examples of nations that have sought to resist it. Many of the technologies and innovations that have spread the greatest prosperity were initially resisted by those who thought defending the status quo was the best way of guaranteeing living standards and protecting their political power.

For example, I should like to take noble Lords back to 1445, when the first printing press was invented in Germany. In 1473, the next one appeared in Budapest. In 1476, a printing press arrived in London. In 1485, the Ottoman Sultan issued an edict banning printing in Arabic. It took 300 years before the first printing press began work in Ottoman lands. As a consequence, the adult literacy rate in the Ottoman Empire in 1800 was 3%. The adult literacy rate of males in the UK at the same time was 60%, and 40% among females. With that came the associated difference in skills, productivity and wealth. There are thousands of other examples, including Elizabeth I, who refused a patent for a knitting machine for fear of the political unrest that the loss of jobs from hand knitting would create, and boatmen in Germany who sank the first rudimentary steam engine as early as 1705 for fear of what it would do to their industry. The lesson from history is clear: the societies and economies most open to innovation are the ones that benefit most from the growth it brings, while closed societies lose out.

Britain led the Industrial Revolution, not by chance but because we as a nation embraced the technology of the age with more vigour and skill than our rivals and our politicians refused to kow-tow to the elites of the day who had most to lose from the emergence of those new technologies. As many noble Lords have said in this fascinating debate, today’s challenge is to replicate that with the technology that will define the next century. That means, as the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, said, fulfilling Britain’s potential to be the world’s most advanced digital nation. Much like the invention of printing, steam power or factory automation that underpinned the Industrial Revolution, the digital revolution is a classic example of the sort of change that might be resisted because of a fear that it threatens the jobs that we have today. In doing so, we risk turning our back on the high-skilled, high-paid jobs of tomorrow. We might succeed in resisting change for a couple of years—probably not for as long as the Ottoman Empire did—but the only long-term beneficiaries of that will be our rivals, who will grow more prosperous at our expense.

We need to be much more confident in embracing and explaining the benefits of technology-based innovation. Contrary to the notion that somehow it will threaten jobs, European Commission research shows that 75% of the value created by the internet is in traditional industries. It helps small businesses trade with new markets, allows them to source cheaper suppliers and reduces running costs, which can be reinvested in traditional growth. To put that into context, according to the Copenhagen Business School, if the UK automated to the extent that Germany has, productivity would rise by 22%. That is growth we can ill afford to lose.

Britain can be rightly proud of London’s status as one of the world’s leading technology hubs. Since 2010, London’s digital sector has grown by 46%, now employing 200,000 people. Research by EY shows that London is now the most attractive place in Europe for international technology companies to invest. That is a success story truly to be proud of, but the challenge is to ensure that it is a national success story, not just a London success story. I do not believe that there are any magic bullets to achieve that, but I would like to highlight two small but essential components.

First, there must be a relentless focus on the digital skills that will define tomorrow’s economy. The noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, spoke very eloquently and passionately about the importance of further education. I would like to talk about skills and education at a much more fundamental level. Across the UK today, 10 million adults lack basic digital skills, by which I mean the ability to send an email, do a web search or fill in an online job application. Contrary to popular perception, they are not all beyond retirement age—50%, some 5 million people, are adults of working age. That is a huge drain on our national productivity.

I am proud to serve on the board of Go ON, the national digital skills charity, which is doing a lot of work across the country with different businesses, local government and charities. But charities alone will not close the gap. There is a very significant political focus on all sides of this House on digital infrastructure, and with significant public funding going into it, but almost none and no discussion about the skills that people across the country will need to use that infrastructure. Just as basic literacy was needed several hundred years ago, driving basic digital skills across the country requires leadership from government. As my noble friend the Minister pulls together the detailed action plan behind the Government’s productivity plan, I urge him to consider how building universal basic digital skills into that agenda can happen.

Secondly, we have to address the physical and cultural barriers that contribute to the productivity gaps that we see in different regions across the country. ONS data show that London has higher levels of productivity than any nation or region in the UK—almost 29% higher than the UK average in 2013. Left unchecked, that gap will undoubtedly entrench economic inequality and poorer living standards in the worst-affected regions.

I feel that very personally, as the chief executive of a business that has quite a large number of people based in London but more people based in the north-west. TalkTalk has two sites in London, one in Farringdon and one in Shepherd’s Bush, and two sites in the north-west, one in Warrington and one in Irlam. Coincidentally, both are seven miles apart from each other, in the north and in London. It is considerably easier for my people to travel between Farringdon and Shepherd’s Bush than between Warrington and Irlam. It is also culturally easier to do that. We find fantastic talents in the north-west as well as in London, but persuading people to move from a job in Warrington to a job in Irlam is considerably harder than it is to persuade people to move to take a job in Farringdon versus a job in Shepherd’s Bush. So as a CEO of a business whose heart and soul is there, I am delighted to see the focus on building a northern powerhouse. It is clear that it is intrinsically linked to better infrastructure, but the political and social leadership to create a broader cultural entity is just as important. That does not mean turning the northern powerhouse into one amorphous entity—Greater London is not that at all. It is totally different whether you live in Bexleyheath, Clerkenwell or Highgate—just to mention three—but everyone in the Greater London catchment is part of that world-class talent base. There is just as brilliant talent in the north. We need to invest in it and create the political and social infrastructure that will drive it. It is fantastic to see this Government bringing that to bear.

As a chief executive who passionately believes that Britain can be a real leader in the digital economy, I welcome the focus on growing productivity. It has been hugely heartening to hear the number of contributions this evening focused on the digital economy, because it is undoubtedly our future.