Thinking about tomorrow: Overcoming the UK’s low and volatile public investment problem

The UK has been under-investing for decades. British business isn’t keen on investing, and the public sector if anything does even worse. Public investment is not only low by international standards, it’s very volatile. Politicians like to announce investment rises, but Chancellor’s also like to cut it when they need to make the fiscal arithmetic add up. Scrapping a bridge tomorrow is always easier than firing a nurse or raising taxes today. But sustained low investment has left us poorer and affected our lives in everything from the healthcare we receive to the homes we live in. Turning this situation around requires radical change to how do such investment, but investing to grow also comes with risks that need to be managed.

Why do British governments invest so little? How can we snap out of the cycle of public investment boom and bust? And what would it take to invest better, as well as more?

The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new research on the challenges of boosting public investment in the UK and our proposed policy solutions, we will hear from leading experts on the feasibility of putting these policies into practice.

Read the report: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/cutting-the-cuts/ 

View the event slides: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/thinking-about-tomorrow/