Intellect Says UK Needs to Pull Itself up by Its Bootstraps

UK must address waning productivity growth to restore UK competitiveness

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intellect, the trade body for the UK’s technology industry, has today warned that failure to address the UK’s waning productivity is undermining the economic recovery. Productivity growth rates have fallen significantly since the recession and need to increase by 30% for the UK to return to its previous levels of GDP growth.

“There’s little prospect of a demand led recovery and quick fixes won’t be enough. We need a ‘bootstrap’ approach – a self sustaining process of renewal and structural change - if we are going to get the productivity uplift we need across all sectors to make the UK more competitive.”

The association, which represents more than 850 tech businesses, has published a report called “The Bootstrap Recovery” which argues that jump-starting productivity growth is critical to economic success. After 20 years of gains, UK productivity growth stalled at the onset of recession and has failed to recover. Intellect argues that weak productivity growth is jeopardising the economic recovery as it is eroding the UK’s long-term competitiveness.

“We have to turn what risks being a lost decade into a decade of renewal”, said Antony Walker, Intellect’s director of strategy. “There’s little prospect of a demand led recovery and quick fixes won’t be enough. We need a ‘bootstrap’ approach – a self sustaining process of renewal and structural change - if we are going to get the productivity uplift we need across all sectors to make the UK more competitive.”

Intellect argues that economies which have thrived and boosted productivity are those that have fully exploited technology innovation and have become ‘tech-excellent’. Intellect sets out the five pillars of tech-excellence and benchmarks the UK’s performance. The report says that the UK must shake off its complacency and go further to drive its competitiveness. To support this call Intellect is launching a national debate on productivity with politicians, industry leaders and employers groups.

“These are tough times”, said Walker, “but we have the knowledge, skills and capabilities in the UK to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and rebuild our economy. Technology isn’t a panacea, but used smartly it can generate productivity gains that compound over time and make the UK more competitive in export markets and a better place to invest. That will generate jobs and get our economy moving. We’re not calling on government to spend money, but for a greater focus on productivity which will have a pull through effect for technology led innovation”.

Launching the report David Callaghan, Intellect’s president and senior vice president, Oracle UK, said: “Identifying where the productivity gaps are and establishing what needs to be done to fill them is vital to getting the economy on track to a sustainable economic recovery. Over the coming months we will be taking this argument to government, industry, business and other interest parties to champion the cause of productivity to achieve a sustainable recovery.”

According to Intellect the UK needs to achieve the five pillars of tech-excellence:

1. World class exploitation of technology across the private sector
2. World class exploitation of technology across the public sector
3. A world leading consumer market for technology adoption and innovation
4. A strong technology sector that will drive and support innovation across the whole economy
5. A coherent policy framework that underpins tech-enabled productivity growth.

ends

Notes to editors: Copies of The Bootstrap Report are available on the Intellect website for download. Hard copies can be obtained from the Intellect press office. The debate has been kicked-off at www.intellectuk/growth and on Twitter #ukgrowth

The report will be launched at Intellect’s annual Regent conference which brings together technology industry leaders, the investment and policy making communities.

Intellect is currently staging a showcase of UK tech excellence at the offices of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills in London.

Intellect is the trade association for the UK’s technology sector which includes the IT, telecoms and electronics industries. Intellect has 850 member companies ranging from major multinationals to SMEs which account for approximately 10per cent of UK GDP. For more information about Intellect please visit: www.intellectuk.org.