Four ways to boost Britain’s stricken economy

When lockdowns end, we will need a plan to get our businesses up and running again. Matthew Lynn outlines four urgently needed measures that the government should bring in.

Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak: it’s time to step up and act
(Image credit: © Leon Neal/Getty Images)

We learned last week that the British economy shrank by the most of any major country in the world during 2020 in a recession that was the deepest in 300 years. It is a slump of historic proportions – with shops and restaurants locked down, gyms and bars closed, and travel restricted, output was 9.9% lower in 2020 than in 2019. You have to go all the way back to the Great Frost of 1709 for a bigger fall in output than the one we have just witnessed. And yet Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been oddly quiet recently. Surely a historic slump demands an equally historic response?

Over the course of the last year Sunak has stepped in with one scheme after another. Employers have been allowed to furlough their staff with 80% of their salaries covered by the Treasury. Taxes and business rates have been postponed. Soft loans have been made available, and the government has started co-investing in start-ups to keep them alive until the economy opens up again. But with the vaccines rolling out at an accelerating rate, what we need now is a clear plan for getting the economy roaring again. Here are the four most urgently needed measures.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.