Hamish McRae, writing in today’s Independent on Sunday, gets to the nub of concerns about economic growth. ‘If we cannot figure out ways to increase productivity, we cannot increase living standards’.

Students of 'McRae-economics' – also known as ‘common sense’ and invariably supported by data designed to enlighten rather than confuse – will find his latest ‘worries about growth’ of interest for four reasons.

First he provides us with a chart to show that this time around the recovery from recession is a relatively slow climb – even if you suspect the official data as understating a more-positive position and take comfort from a growth in jobs.

Secondly he puts his finger on the challenge of productivity – not so much in the manufacturing sector but in the more-difficult services sectors where, despite the potential for productivity gains in public sector delivery, the main burden will fall on private enterprise.

Thirdly he puts this challenge of productivity improvement into the difficult context of unlikely further gains in financial services and the constraints on growth from lower inward migration.

But best of all, in a delightfully rare but refreshing comment from a respected economist, his focus on productivity leads directly to finding ‘ways of lifting output without increasing employment, using the new communications technologies to help do so.’

Those of us who have long seen investment in the new local utility networks for advanced broadband as the ‘infrastructure for enterprise, growth and community development’ will be heartened, at last, to hear that message getting through.

But few people seem to understand that the UK’s laggardly approach to this great transformation has been bogged down whilst our competitors have been forging ahead. The UK at less than 1% penetration is still far from featuring in the league table of the European FTTH Council.

Those of us who studied pre-war history and the perils of appeasement will recall that both Churchill and John F Kennedy wrote essays on the theme of being asleep at the wheel - ‘Whilst (or Why) Britain slept’ – and the wishful state of denial of impending war.

If we are to ever recover from this recession in any sort of competitive shape we must acknowledge that we start with a disadvantage – not just the burden of debt but the non-realisation that we are a long way from being able to match our competitors with digital productivity enabled by fully-fibred networks.

‘So’, Hamish concludes, ‘we have to find ways of not wasting human resources: everything from making sure we train people better, through to cutting silly bureaucratic procedures. Not easy; got to be done.’

Not easy indeed if we do not now shake the UK out of slumbering last generation compromises that are woefully less than fit for purpose.

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Left-hand chart shows digital Application Readiness in rank order.  Countries above the dashed line are considered fully ready for tomorrow's applications.  Source Broadband Quality Study 2010.  

Much the same parlous position applies to the quality of mobile broadband where the UK stands at 24th out of 28 European States (lower than countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal) according to recent research by ARCchart and reported by Rethink Wireless.

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