Today, I am sharing our Roadmap for Growth with Andy Burnham and his team. And with you, our members, and the wider business community.
For business, a change in government is both a risk and an opportunity. We have been clear - and I have been making the case publicly - that business and markets need to lean into optimism and create a smooth transition. Prolonged instability is in nobody’s interests. We cannot afford a summer of speculation and drift.
At the CBI, our aim is simple: keep business priorities front and centre of policy choices, press for decisions that unlock investment, and make sure political change does not become a reason for drift on the most serious issues in our economy. And reach out a hand in social partnership. The road to prosperity has to be walked hand in hand with business.
The Roadmap for Growth is our evidence-led assessment of what the new government must do to unlock stronger, more sustainable growth. It draws directly on what businesses across the UK have told us: that they are ready to invest, hire, innovate and grow, but too many are held back by rising costs, slow delivery, policy complexity and fragile confidence.
The message is clear. Stability was the first step, but now the UK needs momentum. Government should keep the foundations that are working, accelerate the systems that matter most for growth, and change the parts of the operating environment that make it harder for firms to invest and create jobs.
What business needs now
Our Roadmap for Growth draws on insights from hundreds of businesses that take part in our member consultations, Regional Councils and Standing Committees.
The strongest message we heard from members time and again, is that the combined pressure firms are facing from across labour, energy, business rates, regulation, tax, planning and finance is resulting in less capacity to invest, innovate, raise wages, create jobs and generate the revenues that support public services.
That is why the divide between the cost of living and the cost of doing business is false. Business costs shape prices, wages, employment, investment and the tax base. If government wants higher employment, lower inactivity and stronger public finances, it needs to create the conditions for businesses to create jobs and invest with confidence.
Setting out what’s needed to turn ambition into action
The UK does not lack ambition. What businesses want now is delivery at a pace that matches the scale of the country’s economic challenge.
Members talk to us about grid connections without clear timelines, planning delays, stalled infrastructure, slow visas and delayed funding. For a business weighing up an investment, delays can increase financing costs, weaken expected returns and make other markets look more attractive.
Our Roadmap for Growth sets out clearly that the next phase of growth policy should be judged through three practical questions.
What should government keep? The foundations of confidence: fiscal credibility, the single fiscal event, protected capital budgets, the Industrial Strategy, the Infrastructure Strategy, Mansion House reforms, regulatory reform and the UK-EU reset.
What should government accelerate?
The delivery systems that matter most for growth, including planning, grid connections, infrastructure, procurement, skills, AI adoption, public-private partnership models and practical improvements to trade.
What should government change?
The factors holding back business dynamism, from high energy costs and rising employment costs to skills gaps, tax and regulatory complexity, weak commercialisation, delivery failure and a fiscal debate too focused on short-term headroom.
A confident pitch for the UK
The UK can make a much more confident pitch to investors as an open, stable, innovation-led economy, but that pitch must be backed by practical action at home.
Reducing unnecessary friction with Europe should be seen as growth policy. So should crowding in private investment behind infrastructure, energy and innovation. So should using public procurement to help promising technologies scale, rather than leaving too many good ideas stuck at pilot stage.
The same logic applies in AI, life sciences, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, defence, aerospace, cyber and data-driven services. The UK should identify the sectors where it wants to lead, but it must also make it easier for those sectors to invest, scale and commercialise here.
Building a plan for growth based on firm evidence
Our message to the incoming Prime Minister is simple: rely on our evidence. Our roadmap is built on hundreds of real business experiences. On our own economic survey data. And on our six decades of experience serving as the voice of business. Use the Roadmap and work with the businesses that informed it. Together, we can spark the innovation and progress the UK economy so desperately needs.
