Abstract

The debate surrounding economic policy in the UK has recently been heavily focused on determining the appropriate response to the financial crisis and recession. There has been less discussion about the nature of the UK’s political economy.

Leaving the UK’s model of political economy unchanged is, however, not an option in the modern global economy. The existing model has resulted in an unbalanced economy with relatively low productivity and a structural balance of payments deficit. Without reform, these problems will not go away and could worsen. A debate about what Britain’s new economic model should look like is long overdue.

This book—a collaboration between Policy Network and IPPR—aims to fill this gap and poses a series of challenging questions concerning the future of the British economy:

• What are the key principles upon which a progressive political economy in the UK should be based?
• How can government institutions and the role of the state be reformed to ensure they keep pace with a fast-changing economy?
• What can be done to address the market distribution of incomes and assets in order to reduce inequality?
• How can the government better support innovation-led growth?
• How can businesses be encouraged to engage in and support a new model of capitalism that will require significant changes in the way they behave?

The answers to these questions form a significant contribution to the debates about progressive capitalism and inclusive prosperity and set out a way forward for a new political economy in Britain.
Patrick Diamond is lecturer in public policy at Queen Mary, University of London. He was formerly an adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown covering policy and strategy. He is author of Labour's Economic Path to Power (2013).

Tony Dolphin is senior economist and associate director for economic policy at IPPR, one of the UK's leading Thinktanks. He previously worked as an economist and investment strategist at Henderson Global Investors, and before that for WorldInvest Limited. Prior to that he worked as an economic adviser at HM Treasury and in what was then the Department for Education and Science. Tony has written and broadcast widely on the economic challenges facing the UK and is a member of the Society of Business Economists.

Roger Liddle is chair of Policy Network and became a life peer in 2010. He was formerly Tony Blair’s special adviser on European policy and subsequently worked for three years in the European commission. He has written extensively on European and British affairs, including The Blair Revolution (with Peter Mandelson, 1996), Global Europe, Social Europe (with Anthony Giddens and Patrick Diamond, 2006) and Beyond New Labour (with Patrick Diamond, 2009), and most recently The Europe Dilemma: the Drama of EU integration (2014), as well as several other Fabian Society and Policy Network pamphlets.