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  • CBI @10am: One year into the COVID-19 pandemic: what have we learnt?

CBI @10am: One year into the COVID-19 pandemic: what have we learnt?

Recorded 15 March, this session focuses on what we've learnt over the past year.

15 Mar 2021, 2 min read

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Speakers:

  • Matthew Fell, Chief UK Policy Director, CBI
  • Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Economist, CBI
  • Jennifer Beckwith, Head of Employment Policy, CBI
  • James Harding, Co-Founder, Tortoise Media (Chair)

Highlights from the session:

  • One of the biggest takeaways from the past year has been the power of collaboration between business and government, as seen with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and loans. This is in addition to a acceleration of innovation and tech adoption and a shift in business thinking around building back better
  • When it comes to employment, the way employers and employees interact has also fundamentally shifted. For example, mental health has been brought to the forefront of businesses' minds and leaders are rethinking the ways they connect with and engage their staff. Hybrid working is one of the most promising innovations to come out of the pandemic - if done well
  • On the economy, at the start of the pandemic, we saw one of the sharpest drops in output since 1701 but things are much better than they could have been. We're expecting growth of around 4% this year and the furlough scheme has flattened unemployment - it could have gone much higher
  • However, there was recognition from the panel that the economic costs of the pandemic have not been evenly distributed. For example, young people have been particularly impacted when it comes to redundancies and furlough, and wealthier households have managed to increase household savings by working at home and going out less - whereas others have had to dip into savings to cover living costs
  • Looking ahead, it's likely that there will be a notable increase in business demand as places re-open before plateauing in the autumn and changed in consumer spending likely to have future implications for towns and cities
  • A key area to support businesses with is around skills. Even before the pandemic, CBI research found that by 2030 9 out of 10 adults will need to upskill/retrain in some form - the government should look to increase incentives for businesses to invest in their workforce, particularly SMEs.

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