A crash is coming if we don’t begin real investment
In 2007, the average value added to the UK economy per employee, at constant 2016 prices, was £48,690.
In 2015, the figure was £49,559 – just 1.78pc more.
The average annual increase in UK productivity during the whole of the eight years between 2007 and 2015 was therefore 0.2pc.
In China, the comparable annual figure was 7.4pc as output per hour per employee rose between 2007 and 2015 by just under 80pc.
What are the Chinese doing that we are not doing? The fundamental answer is that they are investing in their country’s future and we are not.
By the last quarter of 2015, physical investment in the UK as a proportion of our gross domestic product (GDP) – excluding intangible intellectual property – had dropped to 12.7pc.
The comparable world average was about 24pc and the...