On Monday 27th February, the FEG and IEA held a joint event, looking at the central question of politics today: the growth challenge. At the Growth Forum MPs and independent experts came together to look at how to improve infrastructure and education, reduce taxes and regulation, and reform public services.

The Growth Forum paper includes proposals on the following topics:

The Growth Challenge – Sajid Javid MP

Infrastructure

• Matthew Sinclair (TaxPayers’ Alliance)


• Kwasi Kwarteng MP


• Sam Gyimah MP


• Andrew Sentance CBE (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Job Creation and Education

• Len Shackleton (Buckingham University)


• Elizabeth Truss MP


• Priti Patel MP


• David Rutley MP

Spending and Tax

• Graeme Leach (IoD)


• Allister Heath (City A.M.)


• Andrew Tyrie MP


• David Ruffley MP

Whitehall and Public Service Reform

• Nick Bosanquet (Imperial College London)


• Philip Booth (Institute of Economic Affairs)


• Chris Skidmore MP


• Richard Wellings (Institute of Economic Affairs)

Commenting on the paper, Kwasi Kwarteng MP said:

“Growth is the key issue Britain faces right now. Reducing the size of the state, significant structural reform, reductions in tax and regulation are all vital areas Parliament should be focusing on. There are many powerful ideas from allowing more private investment in infrastructure, to abolishing green taxes and swathes of red tape that should be considered.”

Commenting on the paper, Elizabeth Truss MP said:

“Whilst emerging countries have moved ahead and competitors like Germany have adapted, Britain’s employment laws have fossilised. We urgently need more flexibility to enable companies to take on new people. With not much room for manoeuvre on tax and spend, the central focus of the Budget has to be improving Britain’s competitiveness.”

Commenting on the paper, Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“The government needs to stop merely talking about the need for growth and start taking the necessary policy steps to achieve it. This will not be politically straightforward but will be necessary to assist with the deficit reduction plan and to reduce unemployment. More needs to be done on reducing regulation and red tape and greater ambition needs to be shown on public service reform.

“A cautious, steady-as-she-goes approach is no longer sufficient. The government applies tests relating to equality and discrimination to all areas of new legislation – but it needs to apply a growth test. Growth can only be driven by private sector enterprise, but the government can do much more to help and less to hinder.”

The full paper can be downloaded from the Free Enterprise Group website here.

Notes to editors

Please find the paper attached. For more information, please contact Stephanie Lis, Director of Communications: 020 7799 8909, slis@iea.org.uk

The Institute of Economic Affairs is the UK’s original free-market think-tank, founded in 1955. Its mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The Free Enterprise Group is a group of Conservative MPs, dedicated to recasting the argument about free enterprise for a new age. Britain’s success has been built on free enterprise. Yet Britain is now 83rd in the world for regulation, 94th for taxation and is struggling to compete internationally on education and infrastructure. Conservatives need to engage the argument or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation.

The Free Enterprise Group was established in mid-2011 (www.freeenterprise.org.uk). It aims to:

• Encourage a competitive and free economic environment


• Raise the global economic standing of the United Kingdom


• Challenge monopolies and oligopolies


• Free individuals to create, innovate and take risks

MPs supporting the group are:

Steve Baker MP

Karen Bradley MP

Robert Buckland MP

Aidan Burley MP

Alun Cairns MP

Therese Coffey MP

Charlie Elphicke MP

George Eustice MP

Mark Garnier MP

John Glen MP

Ben Gummer MP

Sam Gyimah MP

Matthew Hancock MP

Richard Harrington MP

Chris Heaton-Harris MP

Margot James MP

Sajid Javid MP

Chris Kelly MP

Kwasi Kwarteng MP

Andrea Leadsom MP

Brandon Lewis MP

Brooks Newmark MP

Jesse Norman MP

Guy Opperman MP

Mark Pritchard MP

Priti Patel MP

Dominic Raab MP

David Rutley MP

Laura Sandys MP

Chris Skidmore MP

Julian Smith MP

Rory Stewart MP

Elizabeth Truss MP

Andrew Tyrie MP

Mike Weatherley MP

Nadhim Zahawi MP