The report’s path to economic growth
■ Establish a Prime Minister-led National Growth Council, ensuring all parts of government support growth.
■ Launch an independent body to ensure the Council’s conclusions are fully and swiftly implemented.
■ Introduce a substantial devolution of funding from central government to Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs), based on major regional centres such as Manchester and Birmingham.
■ Ensure government backing for economic development is tailored to the needs of local businesses.
■ Produce an economic policy for each sector of the economy, written with help from industry and academia.
■ Parachute civil servants into local growth teams to remove blockages holding up business development.
■ Hand a legal role to chambers of commerce to boost local support for businesses.
■ The government should take a more active role in approving foreign takeovers.
■ Build business engagement into the national curriculum and ensure early intervention into failing schools.
■ Every government department should hire a chief procurement officer to lead the delivery of major projects.
■ Clarify policy on airport expansion in the south east at the earliest opportunity.
■ Turn all local government areas outside London into unitary authorities and enable conurbations to elect a mayor for the entire region.