Dear Chancellor, forget the big infrastructure projects. Boosting the productivity of SMEs is the key to growth, writes Paul Ormerod

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has reportedly asked Cabinet colleagues to come up with ideas to boost economic growth. We might reasonably wonder why this exercise was not carried out during Labour’s long period of opposition. Still, something useful may come of it, which is more than can be said of the letter sent at the very end of last year by the Prime Minister.

Keir Starmer asked regulators such as Ofgem and Ofwat to come up with suggestions to stimulate growth. My first reaction on reading this was that it was a brilliant spoof that someone had managed to plant in the media.

Much policy discussion around growth centres on investment. This can be investment in either infrastructure or in what economists call “human capital” – in other........

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