By Daniel Hunter
The government must use this month’s Spending Review to send a clear signal to business that it is getting behind the areas that matter most to growth, according to EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation.
With further reductions in overall spending planned, it is critical that the government prioritises key growth areas such as skills, innovation, exports and infrastructure. EEF believes that the government’s approach of protecting large sections of its spending is unnecessarily obstructing the switch towards growth-enhancing spending. It is therefore calling on government to end the ring-fencing of the health budget.
“With government increasingly relying on business to drive growth, this month’s Spending Review must prioritise the actions to help to deliver it," EEF Chief Executive, Terry Scuoler, said.
"This means getting behind the firms which are innovating and investing in skills and which will deliver the exports to meet the UK’s £1trillion target. We also need to see a step change in investment in our transport system, particularly in our over-stretched road network.
“However, the government is making the shift towards growth-enhancing spending unnecessarily difficult by protecting large areas of spending. The time is now ripe to abandon the ring-fence for health spending.”
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