CBI Director-General John Cridland began the Lib Dem fringe meeting by recognising a recent growth in the economy:
“We are seeing a growth trajectory, but it is nothing to write home about. The danger is that it is only a short spurt of growth.”
He asked how to deliver a sustainable return to growth, unlike in 2008, and said part of the recovery came from better trade links:
“We have got to be able to get on a plane and need more trade links with cities we don’t currently have links to.”
Cridland said that the UK needs access to more trade finance and to be a “full and enthusiastic member of the EU.”
He said negotiations are done better as a block of 500 million consumers not just one of 60 million.
The government must continue to invest in infrastructure and must boost the housing market. He welcomed support for young people with bridging the gap between savings and deposits.
He offered advice on education to David Laws:
“In the longer term there is no more important issue than education. The spending on Education puts us among the premier league, but we are not in the premier league of results in education.”
Business Secretary Vince Cable said that prices and inflation were crucial to competitiveness, despite the fact that wages have actually fallen in real terms for most people.
He added that Britain is great place to set up a company, and that the government could help still further to increase the capacity for innovation and access to credit.
In response to Cridland, he accepted some issues with physical infrastructure, but added there had still been huge progress in rail, road widening and the biggest deep sea port which opened recently.
He said that any changes on energy policy needed real clarity over a ten or twenty year framework. Business and government should be working closer together to achieve this.
On the subject of increasing apprenticeships, Cable highlighted the aerospace industry where he said there had been a real ‘buy in’ from the sector.
Schools Minister David Laws was encouraged by some good data on economic growth over the last two quarters, but said:
“I don’t think any of us in Government can be complacent though; given the scale of the economic shock, it would be a brave person to make a prediction.”
He said there was obviously an issue with house prices, but did not believe a bubble existed yet. He recognised that young people struggle to get on the housing market, adding that the Government must ensure more money actually goes into construction.
On educational attainment he said things have progressed, but indicated that roughly a third of children still failed to get 5 GCSEs at grade C, including Maths and English.
Education from 16-19 actually requires the most improvement, he argued.
Laws added that we would be a more powerful voice within the EU if we were regarded as “a serious long-term player”. He said there was a perception by other countries that the UK was “the boy in the corner of the playground who doesn’t want to be friends with anyone.”
Michelle Quest from
KPMGdescribed the value of their school leaver programme but noted that in accountancy two thirds of recruits still come from independent schools.
She called for working with children on the basis of careers advice and work experience to begin earlier.
In questions at the end of the event, the Cable discussed the importance of inward investment into Britain and used the example of Tata Steel, which he said was “everybody’s dream of an inward investor.”
John Cridland said that the CBI has been relatively slow to come out in support of the UK remaining in the European Union. He explained that time had been spent talking to many of the CBI’s 240,000 members across the UK, to ensure the organisation spoke with a united voice.
Laws added that education must be a choice open to everyone, and that people must be given the opportunity to master the basic academic skills before specialising and moving onto vocational training later.
He expressed disappointment that language skills in the UK had declined since Labour removed the compulsion to study a modern language ten years ago, but he said stronger incentives were now in place through the Ebacc system.
After questioning on the Scottish independence referendum John Cridland said most businesses represented by the CBI were British, and didn’t want to distinguish between English and Scottish. He said the UK was another geographical single market and should be maintained if possible not split up.