On 10 October 2019, we announced an £88 million investment to boost productivity across the UK.
- Productivity matters for creating jobs and allowing people and businesses to earn more. But we know the UK still lags behind many other countries, which makes it harder for our businesses to grow.
- That’s why we are investing £88 million into measures that will boost productivity across the country, creating a new Productivity Institute and developing the very latest computer software, all with the aim of helping businesses to become more efficient and stay at the cutting edge of their sectors.
- By investing in the measures that will boost productivity, we will create more, better-paying jobs across the whole UK, helping fund public services and bringing this country back together on the road to a brighter future.
We are doing this by:
- Creating a new £43 million Productivity Institute, helping businesses to adopt new technologies and practices, meaning more, higher-paid jobs across the country. The Institute will support top researchers to look at how to turbocharge the UK’s productivity levels by tackling problems such as imbalances between regions, poor management practices and skills investment.
- Investing £45 million to develop cutting-edge supercomputer software, helping businesses to grow by staying at the cutting edge of scientific research. The software will make businesses more efficient, by allowing them to better predict weather and climate patterns or design complicated new products on supercomputers.
- Spending at least 2.4 per cent of GDP on research and development by 2027. Since 2016, we have invested an additional £7 billion in R&D – the largest increase for 40 years – with a target to spend 2.4 per cent of GDP on R&D by 2027.
Q: Isn’t Brexit responsible for the recent fall in the UK’s productivity?
We know that the uncertainty around Brexit has meant many firms are putting off decisions about investment, which is precisely why we need to get Brexit done, and get on with driving up productivity and bringing this country back together, through better infrastructure, education and technology.
