Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Britain would boost its economy by £83bn if regional productivity gaps were just halved.
Only London and the South East outperform the national productivity average, with Wales, the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber the lowest-productivity areas.
If the 10 most under-performing regions could each make up just half their productivity gaps with average UK productivity, then UK GDP would be 4pc larger, according to PwC.
>See also: Small Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst – ‘Tech is key to solving productivity’
Employees working in small businesses account for 99.9pc of all business workers, while SMEs account for 99.3pc of all companies.
British output per worker though is between 10pc-15pc lower than it is in Germany, France and Sweden and more than 30pc behind the United States, PwC said.
Matching Germany’s average productivity would boost the economy by £180bn. per year.
Companies need to invest in  staff training schemes, especially whe it comes to digital skills, PwC urged, while the next Government must invest in transport infrastructure.
John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, said: “We find, for example, that a 1pc increase in skills is associated with a 2pc increase in productivity in a local area.”’
Britain has suffered a lost decade when it

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