CPS Deputy Chairman Tessa Keswick and Director Tim Knox joined other influential centre-right voices to push for a strategy for ‘sustained higher long-term economic performance’ in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
SIR – The Coalition deserves praise for convincing the international markets that it has a credible deficit reduction plan. But that is not enough.
What is needed now is a strategy for sustained higher long-term economic performance. Central to this purpose is the determined implementation of infrastructure projects, irrespective of whether they reflect promises made before the full onset of the present emergency.
Here are seven policy steps to be taken:
1 Adopt a coherent and realistic energy policy, based on rapid private-sector development of new gas (including fracked gas), coal and nuclear generation.
2 Stop building wind-farms and repeal (or suspend) the Climate Change Act, which threatens to impose a yearly bill of some £15 billion, chiefly affecting those who can least afford it.
3 Announce measures to allow increased capacity at Heathrow and elsewhere, and bring forward proposals to facilitate a new hub on the Thames Estuary.
4 Abandon HS2, and encourage private investment in building and maintaining the road system.
5 Remove all barriers to private-sector development of a reliable, modern internet system.
6 Liberalise the development of a reliable water network with adequate new reservoirs.
7 Veto the EU budget until it is cut, with control over subsidies returned to member states.
These policies, coupled with the exemption of small businesses from employment regulation, would both modernise Britain and build the momentum for growth. Taken together, they would not involve additional public spending; nor should they involve PFI-style financing gimmicks.
Rather, it is a matter of transferring resources from unproductive projects to wealth-creation and the delivery of essential infrastructure. The alternative is continuing stagnation, based on token cuts of recurrent entitlements and real cuts into the backbone of Britain’s future.
Tessa Keswick
Deputy Chairman, Centre for Policy Studies
Lord Leach of Fairford
Tim Knox
Director, Centre for Policy Studies
Mark Littlewood
Director-General, Institute of Economic Affairs
Tim Montgomerie
ConservativeHome
Matthew Sinclair
The TaxPayers’ Alliance
Date Added: Monday 9th July 2012
