Is Britain’s Growth Model Broken – and Can Brexit Help to Fix It?

The UK’s vote to leave the EU two years ago was widely seen as evidence that many British citizens have been “left behind” by the country’s economic growth model.

However since then, UK-EU negotiations have been entirely focused on matters such as trade models, dispute arbitration mechanisms and customs technology. Bigger questions about the state of our economy and society have taken a back seat.

A new paper by Dr Christopher Bickerton situates the 2016 vote within the wider context of Britain’s flexible labour market and consumption-driven growth model and argues that British growth needs to be rebalanced, with more emphasis on investment and exports.

Brexit provides an opportunity to achieve this historic change in Britain’s political economy but only if a transformation in the UK’s relations with the EU can serve as a platform for a deeper reflection on how the British economy grows and how the gains from this growth are distributed.

In this event, Dr Bickerton introduced his research, and took part in a panel discussion also featuring Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court, Former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury; Bridget Rosewell OBE, Economist, Founder of Volterra Partners and Chair of Atom Bank; Martin Sandbu, Economics Commentator, Financial Times.