Clause 20 - Duty to make references in relation to completed mergers
Enterprise Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Ken Purchase (Wolverhampton North East, Labour/Co-operative)
I am interested in what the hon. Gentleman has to say. It does not require a great leap of imagination to recognise that one of the main purposes of improving productivity, although it is good in itself, is to increase prosperity. That is usually measured by increased growth in the economy as a whole. That was my point–during the 1980s, in any analysis, the growth and the improvements in productivity were overwhelmingly based on taking the labour fraction out of the equation. That resulted in huge losses to the public purse and did not improve growth in this country one iota.