UK growth strategy needs stronger No.10 grip, says Institute for Government

Britain’s government lacks both a credible growth strategy and the central authority needed to deliver one, according to a damning new analysis from the Institute for Government. The think tank, widely respected across Westminster for its scrutiny of Whitehall, warns that without significant reforms to how Downing Street operates, the country’s economic ambitions will remain little more than wishful thinking.

What the report actually says

The IfG’s assessment pulls no punches. It argues that No.10 is currently too weak to coordinate the kind of cross-departmental effort that genuine growth policy demands. Individual ministries tend to pursue their own priorities, and there’s no strong centre pulling everything together. That’s not a new criticism of British government — but the think tank says the problem has become more acute under current conditions, with departments like Treasury, Business, and Energy frequently working at cross-purposes.

The report calls for clearer lines of accountability, a better-resourced Prime Minister’s delivery unit, and a growth mission that goes beyond headline targets and actually assigns responsibility to specific ministers.

Why this matters right now

The UK economy grew by just 0.1% in the first quarter of this year, barely registering. Productivity remains stubbornly below pre-2008 levels compared to peer economies like France and Germany. And business investment, despite repeated government pledges, has failed to recover to the levels seen before Brexit uncertainty took hold.

So the stakes aren’t abstract. The IfG is essentially saying that the structural failure in Whitehall is costing the country real growth — and that patching it with announcements and spending reviews won’t fix it.

A senior government official, speaking on background, acknowledged the challenge but insisted the administration was already working to improve cross-departmental coordination through its missions framework.

The No.10 problem

But that’s precisely what the IfG disputes. The think tank points out that mission boards — the government’s preferred coordination mechanism — have met inconsistently and lack enforcement powers. Ministers can effectively ignore them without consequence. And the Prime Minister’s office, staffed by roughly 40 policy officials, is simply too small to grip an agenda of this scale.

This is the core of it: good intentions aren’t enough when the machinery isn’t built to deliver.

For context, the IfG notes that the Canadian and Australian Prime Ministers’ offices employ substantially larger policy teams with clearer mandates. Britain’s setup, it suggests, is an outlier among comparable democracies.

What comes next

The government is expected to publish a refreshed industrial strategy later this year, and the Spending Review in June will set departmental budgets through to 2028. Those two moments, the IfG argues, represent a genuine opportunity to reset — but only if No.10 is willing to make structural changes, not just rhetorical ones.

Whether Keir Starmer’s administration has the appetite for that kind of internal reform, while simultaneously managing a difficult fiscal position, remains very much an open question. The clock isn’t exactly standing still.