Time for a Plan C? Slow Growth and Public Service Reform

In the first two of six papers, Nick Seddon, deputy director of Reform, and Vicky Pryce, economist, ask whether faced with further retrenchment, will it be possible through public service reform to protect the most vulnerable and universal service standards and if so how? Does slow growth require a more profound shift in policy, expectations and culture?

High unemployment and falling living standards may well remain a feature of life in the UK under prolonged slow economic growth. At the same time, further dramatic public spending cuts due to be rolled out after the general election inevitably mean ever starker choices about public service provision and welfare entitlements.

Plan C challenges policy makers, opinions formers and ordinary citizens to examine how we might best respond to this new reality. Does slow growth require a more profound shift in policy, expectations and culture? Might it even be possible for some things about our economy, society and culture to improve despite slow growth?

To begin to tackle these questions, there must first be clarity on what it is that the state should be doing and what role individuals have, as well as the degree of redistribution we want through public spending, welfare and taxation. Higher priority will need to be given to public spending that increases growth potential. Crucial long-term investments such as early years education to big infrastructure investment must be sustained in order to raise our productive potential.

In Slow Growth and Public Service Reform and Shaping up to Slow Growth, Nick Seddon, deputy director of Reform, and economist Vicky Pryce ask whether, faced with further retrenchment, it will it be possible through public service reform to protect the most vulnerable and universal service standards and if so how?