Miliband launches “Adonis Growth Commission”

Today Ed Miliband has launched a “Growth Commission”, led by lord Adonis, that will seek to look into key areas for growth stimulation, including:

• Enabling Britain to become a world leader in innovation in terms of its ability to develop and exploit new ideas to drive productivity growth.

• Gearing our education and training systems to make sure they meet the needs of employers and employees and help deliver a revolution to support the jobs of the future.

• Focusing our infrastructure so it can support the freedom of movement of goods, people and information to maximise its impact on growth and jobs.

• Ensuring corporate governance standards in corporations and equity markets support longer term growth for the benefit of all stakeholders.

• Providing SMEs with improved access to finance as well as support to grow more quickly and export.

• Delivering polices in partnership with businesses and representative bodies at an appropriate national, regional or local level to drive this radical agenda for growth forward.

The Adonis Review is jointly supported by IPPR and Policy Network and will focus on business innovation and job creation. Adonis will be travelling around the country gathering information and case studies ahead of the publication of the report in Spring 2014. Launching the event on a visit to Crossrail, Miliband said:

“The last Labour government rebuilt our schools and rescued our NHS so that these key services worked better for the people of Britain. The next Labour government will need the same level of ambition in rebuilding our economy to secure a recovery made by many which is built to last.

“That is why I am delighted that Andrew Adonis has agreed to lead this independent review on growth. 

“Having played such a key role reforming our public services before, he will now be applying similar radical thinking to industrial policy so that we can rebuild our economy, equip Britain with the skills and better jobs we need to pay our way in the world.

“There will be less money around so we need new ideas. And that is where the hard work comes in to make the economic reforms needed to create a more responsible capitalism. This is one of the key ways we can make a huge difference to people’s lives while also demonstrating the discipline required to get the deficit down.

“A One Nation Labour government will work with business to deliver more youth apprenticeships and promote long term growth, work with entrepreneurs to encourage innovation, and work with local government to build the infrastructure Britain needs in the future, like Crossrail.

“But none of this will happen without new ideas, careful planning and consistency. This is an important review and I will be looking forward to reading its conclusions as part of the preparations we undertake for the next Labour government.”