Professor Mazzucato Welcomes Chancellor’s 'Active Government' Commitment and Labour’s Five Missions
27 September 2024
IIPP Director attends Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, advocating for strategic directed public investment.
Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), welcomed Chancellor Rachel Reeves' embrace of 'active government' in her speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. In three different panels and two news interviews, Prof Mazzucato emphasised that this commitment must be backed by substantial and strategic public investment to drive economic growth and deliver on the government’s five missions, which have been influenced by IIPP’s global work.
Responding to the Chancellor's speech on Channel 4 News on Monday, Prof Mazzucato stated, "It's encouraging to hear the Chancellor's commitment to active government. However, it's not just about avoiding cuts, which would merely prevent austerity. What we need is a systemic, active, strategic level of public investment to catalyse innovation and drive sustainable growth." These arguments echoed the points made in a letter Prof Mazzucato co-signed in the Financial Times ahead of the conference.
Prof Mazzucato's endorsement came with a clear call for a more comprehensive approach to economic policy from the new government. She argued that the UK's economic challenges stem from systemic under-investment rather than overspending. "Had public investment in the UK matched the OECD average over the past two decades, it would have been £500 billion higher at 2022 prices," she noted, highlighting the scale of the investment gap.
Prof Mazzucato made the case for more strategic public investment during a panel organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on "How can Labour supercharge public and private investment." The panel, chaired by Harry Quilter-Pinner, Interim Executive Director of IPPR, included Torsten Bell MP, Heather Boushey, key architect of the Biden administration's industrial strategy and member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Simon Virley, Head of Energy at KPMG, and Carsten Jung, Head of Macroeconomics at IPPR.
The UK government's five missions, which aim to address critical issues facing the country, were a key topic at the Labour Party Conference. The missions approach is heavily influenced by Prof Mazzucato’s Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. IIPP recently launched its Mission-Oriented Policy Hub which shares insights from the institute’s work with its government partners on mission-oriented governance over the past seven years (in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, and others).
This work includes IIPP’s partnership with Camden Council, which adopted four missions around sustainable neighbourhoods, food security, diversity and inclusion, and opportunity for young people. The local government has since embedded its missions in the way it delivers public procurement and community wealth fund.
IIPP co-hosted an event with IPPR about "Walking the talk of a challenge-driven approach: A different way to do government" with Georgia Gould, MP for Queen's Park and Maida Vale and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office and former Head of Camden Council. Prof Mazzucato and Minister Gould explored practical implementations of mission-driven governance, drawing on their shared experience on Camden Council's pioneering work.
As the conference concluded, Prof Mazzucato's message resonated strongly: while the Chancellor's commitment to active government is a step in the right direction, the UK's economic renewal requires actively increasing public investment aligned to solving some of the UK’s grand challenges. Her contributions have set the stage for ongoing discussions about the role of a new industrial strategy in shaping the UK's economic future.