A panel of top business leaders from Tesco, Heathrow Airport, Shell and AstraZeneca are calling for a National Prosperity Plan to work together and deliver a plan on rebuilding after the COVID-19 pandemic and how the UK can achieve better business, economic, environmental and social outcomes for all.
The Covid Recovery Commission, formed in July 2020, proposes the aim of ensuring that the UK recovers from the pandemic, reduces inequalities and creates a fairer and more resilient economy. Business figures have been providing new ideas, recommendations and practical policy ideas across a range of areas and are currently examining the impact of the COVID crisis to ‘support higher productivity levels, encourage business investment and promote a culture of innovation across the UK’.
The Ambition 2030: A Partnership for Growth report sets out a 10 year blueprint in the aim of ‘creating competitive industries in every part of the UK’ and to ‘deliver on the government’s net zero commitments and reduce the economic and social inequalities that have been widened as a result of the pandemic’. The report argues that ‘the pandemic has had a bigger impact on our economy than any event in the last 300 years’.
Tom Keith Roach, Chief Executive of AstraZeneca UK said:
“Our response to COVID-19 has shown the vital importance of collaboration between purpose-led business, Government, academia and regulators in delivering an urgent, ambitious national agenda on behalf of the British people. It’s clear we now need to align and unleash all our strength behind a new national imperative to build a stronger, fairer and more resilient economy whilst accelerating our move to net zero.”
