Osborne promises a 'new economic model'

Peter Cuthbertson
2 February 2010

The Shadow Chancellor George Osborne today set out  some of the core components of Conservative economic policy.

Osborne asked rhetorically: “Where is the growth going to come from?”, answering, “The answer is a new economic model for growth - set out in detail in this important economic policy document that we are publishing today.”

The document, A new economic model: eight benchmarks for Britain, sets out some of the Conservatives’ existing key policies. These include:

• A “credible plan to eliminate a large part of the structural deficit over a Parliament”. Elsewhere, the document states that “we will ensure that by far the largest part of the burden of dealing with the deficit falls on lower spending rather than higher taxes.”
• A pledge to cancel Labour’s planned 1% increase in National Insurance contributions from employers and employees in 2011.
• A commitment to “improve Britain’s international rankings for tax competitiveness and business regulation”. A new economic model sets out how Britain’s rankings for competitiveness corporate taxes, the overall burdens of taxes and regulation have all fallen since 1997 and promises to reverse this trend.
• Significantly, there is a pledge to “raise the private sector’s share of the economy in all regions of the country, especially outside London and the South East”.
• There is a promise to raise productivity growth in the public sector and some of the ways in which this will be achieved: through payment by results for welfare and prison reform; increasing choice and diversity of provision, especially in education; and the publication online of all government spending above £25,000.
• Finally, the Conservatives promise an absolute reduction in UK greenhouse gas emissions.