The Notebook: Michael Hayman on getting Britain’s trade mojo back
Every day we invite London’s movers and shakers to hold the notebook pen. Michael Hayman MBE chairs the Global Britain working group for the British Chambers of Commerce and is co-founder of Seven Hills
How does Britain get its mojo back? It’s a question I asked in these pages for Change Makers last week with Get Living CEO Rick de Blaby.
The context for that conversation was the regeneration of Britain’s housing stock with build to rent properties. Today, I ask it in the context of trade.
And like Hugh Grant’s narration at the outset of Love Actually, we start that tale at the gateway to the UK: Heathrow Airport, for the launch of a new report from the British Chambers of Commerce’s Global Britain working group, which I chair.
Almost 20 million passengers pass through this airport each year. And the point Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister makes is that each of those has a story to tell. But in 2024, perhaps we need to think about what story we are telling about the UK.
As the author of the Chancellor’s inward investment review,Lord Harrington, puts in his introduction to the report: “How it is told, and by who, matters to the success of our economy.”
The how of that story must be innovation. The Global Innovation Index ranks the UK fourth out of 132 nations, wehave the third largest stock of inward investment assets, and rank fifth globally for total value of exports, while 18 of the top 100 international universities by research spend and standing are right here.
But the point that I made to a room of business leaders,was that we either use these assets or we lose them. And to do it, a joint effort is needed.
‘Team UK’ is the key recommendation of our report. A new drive to champion and revitalise ‘Brand Britain’ by showcasing the best of what we can offer inward investors– convening an international network of cultural, societal, commercial, and business networking bodies into a cohesive unit, to promote the country’s offer to the world.
All to play for
Why is that important? Well, while the UK has a rich history of foreign direct investment and exports, the entrepreneurial zeal of emerging economies globally means that we are now competing with the world to keep our place at the top table in a more demanding digital, green world.
That was the message of the former First Secretary of State Lord Mandelson at that same Heathrow event, where he spoke with typical candour: “We have quite simply got to get our act together as a country, turn the page, move on[from Brexit] and start the next chapter in our national economic story.”
Quite right. The world wants to hear from Britain, but we need to get over our national soap opera and get out there. Fight for our reputation and our place in that future.
To do that, we need to reframe Britain’s mindset from one of an incumbent, to one of a challenger. Accelerating our position as a leading nation for capital investment with a new and coordinated focus on presenting the country’s capacity for innovation.
Holding us back, says Mandelson, are the UK’s antiquated planning laws: “Designed for 1947, not 2024”, describing them as an “endemic barrier to growth” that successive governments of all colours have wrestled with.
He should know, as it was his own grandfather, Herbert Morrison, who led the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 as deputy Prime Minister to Clement Attlee.
So, for those reticent to change our approach, take a leaf out of Lord Mandelson’s book. A politician quite happy to ditch the family legacy.
All the world’s a stage
Of course, Mandelson’s critique to his grandfather’s legacy is not personal but practical. What was fit for one time is not necessarily fit for another. It’s no doubt why he says he’s “more of a Terminal 5 man”.
That same message should apply in how we view the UK’s status in the world.
“Britain cannot afford the luxury of self-delusion,” Mandelson said. “Nor can we clone either the American playbook or chequebook.” Nor for that matter of China and Europe. This is not the Britain of empire and grandeur but of a small nation out on its own.
Rather than fighting against the world, however, we should be working with it and within the parameters that the changing global order has presented. As per Mandelson: “Anew investment case for Britain, rooted in what is unflinchingly honest about our strengths, where they lie and where they don’t.”
What gives us a fighting chance are those historical assets I touched on earlier, as well as the strength of our future potential: the largest market for AI investment in Europe (and third largest globally) and the largest wind energy potential of anywhere in Europe.
Britain is already the eighth largest exporter of green products in the world – potential that is ripe for expansion and development. Forget optic-led FTAs and overly complex regulation, but a more mature trade policy with targeted agreements on digital, key minerals and green technology.
As Director-General of the Chambers, Shevaun Haviland noted, the central skill for any actor is to adapt, change and play the part they’ve been given. And if all the world’s the stage, now is the moment for the UK to embrace its role in a different future.
What to watch this weekend
Everyone needs to switch off, but A Gentleman In Moscow at least reminds us how to be diplomatic. Ewan McGregor takes the reins as Amor Towles fictional hero The Count in A Gentleman in Moscow. The most charming person you’ll ever meet and a lesson our trade promoters might consider in winning friends and influencing people in the quest for global trade.
Michael Hayman MBE chairs the Global Britain working group for the British Chambers of Commerce and is co-founder of Seven Hills.