The British Growth Crisis Building a Sustainable Political Recovery: SPERI Research & Policy Series Editors: Colin Hay and Anthony Payne, Co-Directors of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at the University of Sheffield, UK. SPERI is an innovation in higher education research and outreach. It brings together leading international researchers in the social sciences, policy makers, journalists and opinion formers to reassess and develop proposals in response to the political and economic issues posed by the current combination of financial crisis, shifting economic power and environmental threat. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy will serve as a key outlet for SPERI’s published work. Each title will summarise and disseminate to an audience of academics, postgraduate students and directly to policy makers and journalists, key policy-oriented research findings designed to further the development of a more sustainable future for the national, regional and world economy following the global financial crisis. It takes a holistic and interdisciplinary view of political economy in which the local, regional, national and global interact at all times and in complex ways. The SPERI research agenda, and hence the focus of the series, seeks to explore the core economic and political questions that require us to develop a new sustainable model of political economy. The British Growth Crisis The Search for a New Model Edited by Jeremy Green Research Fellow, University of Sheffield, UK Colin Hay Professor of Political Science, University of Sheffield, UK and Peter Taylor-Gooby Professor of Social Policy, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK Editorial matter, selection and introduction © Jeremy Green, Colin Hay and Peter Taylor-Gooby 2015 Individual chapters © Respective authors 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN: 978–1–137–44151–5 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 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Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables ix Notes on Contributors x Introduction: The British Growth Crisis 1 Jeremy Green, Colin Hay and Peter Taylor-Gooby Part I Diagnosing the Crisis 1 Should the UK Continue to Follow Liberal Economic Policies? 17 Graham Gudgin and Ken Coutts 2 UK Economic Performance Under New Labour 1997–2010: Facts, Lessons and Pointers 43 Dan Corry 3 Anglo-American Financial Interdependence and the Rise of Income Inequality 77 Jeremy Green Part II Evaluating Responses 4 Economic Recovery and Governance for the Long-Term 105 Gerry Stoker 5 Public Policy Futures: A Left Trilemma? 126 Peter Taylor-Gooby 6 The UK Macroeconomic Policy Debate and the British Growth Crisis: Debt and Deficit Discourse in the Great Recession 151 Ben Clift 7 The Final Nail in the Coffin? Crisis, Manufacturing Decline, and Why It Matters 174 Craig Berry v vi Contents Part III Global, Local and Sectoral Dimensions 8 L ocal and Regional Economic Development in Britain 201 D anny MacKinnon, Andrew Cumbers and David Featherstone 9 E mployment Protection Legislation and the Growth Crisis 221 J ason Heyes and Paul Lewis 10 G lobalisation and the UK Economy since the 1990s 242 J onathan Perraton 11 T he Need for an Engaged, Expert and Inclusive British Capitalism 261 A ndrew Tylecote and Paulina Ramirez Part IV Alternatives Beyond Growth? 12 A Feminist Critique of the ‘Politics of Community’ 285 D aniela Tepe-Belfrage 13 T owards a New Growth Strategy: Promoting Decent Work in the United Kingdom 304 F rank Pyke List of Figures 1.1 R eal GDP per capita in the UK 21 1.2 P roductivity 24 1.3 E mployment rate 24 1.4 U nemployment rate 25 1.5 I nflation rate: annual percentage changes in consumer price index 26 1.6 P roductivity: UK as a percentage of the EU6 29 1.7 G DP per head 30 1.8 P roductivity comparisons: GDP per hour worked 32 1.9 E mployment rates: persons employed as percentage of population aged 15–64 33 1.10 A nnual hours worked per employee 34 1.11 U K exports of non-oil goods as a percentage of world exports 35 1.12 U K relative unit labour costs (2008=100) 35 1.13 U K trade balance 36 2.1 U K growth in GDP per capita faster than every other G6 country 45 2.2 G DP per adult growth (1997=100) in UK, US, France and Germany 46 2.3 T rends in real GDP per worker and employment per capita (adult) relative to 1997 48 2.4 U K still lags behind in total economy productivity levels 49 2.5 S ector shares of total economy GVA 50 2.6 S ector contributions to market economy productivity growth, UK, 1979–2007 52 2.7 S ector contributions to market economy productivity growth, 1979–2007 53 2.8 S ources of labour productivity growth, market economy 55 2.9 G ross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) 72 3.1 U K top 1 per cent income share, 1949–2009 86 3.2 U K top 1 per cent income share and UK real FDI flows, 1970–2009 90 3.3 U K top 1 per cent income share and UK real gross FDI flows, five-year moving averages, 1974–2009 91 vii viii List of Figures 3.4 U K finance/insurance sector yearly bonuses and UK real gross FDI flows, 2000–2012 92 5.1 O BR central long-term projection: spending, revenue and balance 128 5.2 U nemployment as percentage of labour force (WEO harmonised rates), media discourse (Nexis) and benefit generosity (BSA) 136 5.3 V iews on incomes differences and spending on the poor and the level of poverty (BSA) 137 7.1 I ndustrial breakdown of UK resident bank lending 181 7.2 S hare of manufacturing in regional output, 2011 187 8.1 LEPs in England, end of 2011 213 9.1 2 007 employment rates in EU member states plotted against OECD EPL scores 232 9.2 2 007 unemployment rates in EU member states plotted against OECD EPL scores 232 9.3 Q uarterly changes in long-term youth (15–24 yrs) unemployment, 2008–2013 234 9.4 E PL and employment rate changes, Q3 2008–Q3 2009 235 11.1 R &D expenditure as a percentage of GDP of selected economies over the period, 1980–2011 263 11.2 E xpenditure on R&D by businesses in the UK as a percentage of GDP 264 11.3 O wnership of businesses who perform R&D in UK 266 13.1 G rowth through promoting business first 306 13.2 G rowth through decent work first: the United Kingdom 315 List of Tables 1.1 A nnual percentage growth in export volumes 22 2.1 G rowth of GDP, GDP per person and GDP per adult, 1997–2010 45 2.2 P ublic expenditure on education as a percentage of total GDP 64 2.3 P ercentage of 25- to 64-year old population by educational level 65 5.1 I psos MORI combined pre-election and post-election poll statistics 133 9.1 O ECD measures of EPL for EU member states, 2008–2013 compared 229 9.2 U nemployment rates in the EU, 2006–2012 231 11.1 V enture capital investments as a percentage of GDP 267 11.2 B eneficial ownership of UK shares by value 268 11.3 D iscretionary learning work organisations as a percentage of the total workforce, selected European countries 275 ix