Second quote of the day 5th August 2022

"The main pressure is external ... but we've got another thing going on that is domestic: the size of the labour force has shrunk ... The first thing that every firm wants to talk to me about is 'I can't hire enough people'."

The above is a quote from the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey in an interview this week.

This is why the most urgent task for whoever becomes PM in a month's time is to sort out Britain's long-term problem of anaemic growth in productivity. There is no simple solution to this and neither left nor right have all the answers, which are likely to include more investment - and therefore decent returns on investment - more imaginative management, fewer restrictive labour practices and, most difficult of all, genuine reform of the housing market which should feature both a better planning balance which allows more houses to be built where they are needed but with the necessary supporting infrastructure, and making it less of a nightmare to buy or sell a property.

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