Baroness Bull
Main Page: Baroness Bull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Baroness Penn
One thing that is unchanged in this crisis is the Government’s commitment to levelling up across the country. The Government fully acknowledge the importance of local plans in building our economic recovery once we are through this pandemic.
Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, after the 2008 global financial crisis, UK productivity fell from an annual average rate of 2% to just 0.3%, with full recovery happening only after 30 quarters. Can the Minister assure the House that the lessons of 2008 are being taken into account in dealing with today’s crisis? In particular, what assessment has been made of the longer-term impact on productivity, and therefore on essential funds for public services, of failing to protect the goods and services sector alongside the understandable employment subsidies to protect jobs?
Baroness Penn
I assure the noble Baroness that we will reflect on all lessons from the past in dealing with the current crisis, although we have never seen anything quite of its nature before. One of our focuses, through the job retention scheme and the loans available to businesses, is to protect and maintain our productive capacity so that we can bridge this crisis, come out the other end, and protect our nation’s productivity and growth.