www.ippr.org

Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

Going for Growth: comparing the South East’s economic performance

• What framework and measures should we use for comparing the economic performance of the SE region?

• How robust is our evidence base?

• Is it a priority for GVA per head in the SE region to grow faster or would the current rate do?

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Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

Going for growth

• The Government’s PSA target • The meaning of ‘sustainable’• The PSA target could be met – but absolute

regional disparities could continue to grow • Key components of GVA: productivity &

employment. • We care about employment as an outcome in

its own right

www.ippr.org

Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

Benchmarking the SE economy

• SE and London are the two largest contributors to the UK economy

• SE is the only UK region with an above average economic growth rate

• No comparable EU regions have a significantly higher level of GVA per head

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Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

Other measures of prosperity

• Gross disposable household income per head

• Particularly important for looking at prosperity at the sub-regional and local level.

• The SE is not uniformly prosperous

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Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

The SE labour market is tight but it is not overheating

• 4% unemployment rate; 80% employment rate

• Who remains excluded from the labour market?

• Incidence of hard-to-fill and skill shortage vacancies close to national average

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Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

The structure of the SE economy and the quality of jobs

• The ‘knowledge economy’

• The SE region is not constrained by its own supply of highly qualified people

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Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East

Key policy statements

• 1. The key objective for the SE is to increase its current rate of economic growth

• 2. The SE could accept its current growth rate and do more to deal with the ‘problems of success’

• 3. The SE could accept a slightly lower growth rate, which might make it easier for the region to deal with those ‘problems of success’ …. And for the government to reduce regional disparities