Tories are going backwards on green growth, says CBI

The head of Britain’s biggest business organisation has warned that the government is “going backwards” on the green growth agenda that provides the best opportunity to lift the country out of recession over the coming years.

- ANDREW WOODCOCK POLITICAL EDITOR

Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said that businesses were "confused and disappointed" over the failure of Rishi Sunak's government to foster green growth measures such as lifting the ban on onshore wind farms in England - a move that has divided the party - and making the City of London a global centre for sustainable finance.

Mr Danker's warning comes as the group released a sombre analysis of the outlook for the UK's economy, sharply cutting forecasts for growth and predicting that productivity and business investment will remain below pre-Covid trends until the end of 2024.

With a GDP contraction of 0.4 per cent forecast for next year and growth of just 1.6 per cent the next, the CBI predicted that UK national income at the end of 2024 will be 8 per cent below its pre-pandemic trend and a remarkable 27 per cent below what it would have reached if the growth seen before the 2008 financial crash had continued.

In a biting assessment of Mr Sunak's economic position, Mr Danker said the CBI believes the UK is already in recession and suffering "stagflation" - a combination of soaring inflation and falling GDP. It risks a "lost decade of growth" unless ministers take action over the next two or three months to tackle persistent weaknesses in investment and productivity.