Sterling

Lord Fox Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, the noble Lord mentioned a number of issues, one of which was factory output. I remind him that manufacturing now accounts for almost half of total UK exports—49% in 2017, with a value of just over £300 million. The manufacturing sector has seen productivity increase over three times faster than the UK economy as a whole over the past 10 years. I cannot add anything more relating to sterling but I reiterate that we have provided over half a trillion pounds in capital investment. We are cutting taxes to support business investment, we have improved access to finance through the British Business Bank, and we have improved skills through investment in apprenticeships and the introduction of T-levels.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, here is another statistic: the ONS says that productivity fell 0.6% between April and June. Over the summer Andy Haldane, who is not only the chief economist of the Bank of England but the chair of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Council, gave an important speech on the UK’s productivity problem. Its subtitle was “Hub No Spokes”. If the Minister had been here I would have asked him if he had read the speech; perhaps his stand-in can pass that question on. More importantly, having read that speech, what are the Government going to do to redress the balance and respond to the important points that Haldane makes?

[The Earl of Courtown]

No, my Lords, I have not read Mr Haldane’s speech, but I will pass it on to my colleagues in the department. However, there is something that the noble Lord should acknowledge regarding the ONS statistics on productivity: he will be aware that the Bean review reported in March 2016, that the Government supported its recommendations, and that the ONS has so far made good progress in acting on them, to ensure that we have proper productivity figures available for our examination.