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Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party, in a speech at Jaguar Land Rover in the West Midlands, said:
It is great to be here at Jaguar Land Rover.
I want to congratulate you on your incredible success.
Transforming this business into a world-beater.
Creating jobs.
Exports.
And wealth for our country.
That’s why there can be no better place to launch our plan for Britain’s prosperity.
And our plan starts from the central insight of JLR:
You know wealth is created as a partnership: management and workforce driving for higher productivity.
Because you recognise that in the modern world, every single worker at your company is a wealth creator.
And just as it is true for your company, so it is time we recognised it as a country.
For Britain to succeed, we need a plan which nurtures the talents of every young person, supports every business, allows every family to share in our prosperity, and expects each and every one of us to contribute.
So our plan is based on the idea that it is only when working families succeed that Britain succeeds.
That is such a long way from the way Britain is today.
We are an economy with success stories like JLR.
But too few of them.
Too often we’re a country of low skill, low wage, insecure jobs.
And that isn’t just bad for working families, it is bad for Britain too.
When families don’t have money to spend, it holds back our economy.
When there is so much insecurity, working families and businesses can’t plan for the long term.
When people don’t have the chance to develop their skills, our companies become less competitive in the world.
And why is this happening?
Not because we aren’t industrious.
We work some of the longest hours in Europe.
Not because we don’t have a work ethic.
Not because our young people don’t want to succeed.
No, because we have historic weaknesses as a country which no government has addressed.
We haven’t recognised the most important economic idea of the 21st century:
That wealth doesn’t simply come from a few at the top, either individuals or companies.
But it flows from every working person.
Every single person is a wealth creator.
So as a result we face decades-long failings that have held British working people and British businesses back.
Failings that make us less productive and competitive than we need to be.
This is the scale of our productivity problem as a country:
We produce nearly 20 per cent less per hour worked than the other G7 countries.
The gap is at its highest level for nearly 25 years.
And this makes us all poorer.
We can’t be a richer country, we can’t be a fairer country, we can’t be a country which pays down the deficit, unless we are a more productive country.
So our plan is a change from this government and their view of how our country will prosper.
Because we recognise that wealth creation comes from all and not just a few.
And it is a change from Labour’s past.
Recognising that we cannot simply succeed with redistribution or with tax and spend, but we must reform the way our economy works to make us more productive.
A modern industrial strategy for Britain’s businesses and Britain’s working families to succeed together.
A route-map for turning the fortunes of working people and our country around.
A plan for every sector, every firm, to raise productivity and make bigger profits and create inclusive prosperity.
Pro-business but not business as usual.
To do this will require every part of our country – government, business and workers – to step up.
Now JLR transformed its fortunes by transforming the skills of its workforce.
And our country must learn this lesson.
For too long this country has believed we can succeed with just some people having access to world-class education, training and skills.
So our plan begins with a revolution in vocational education.
A new gold standard vocational baccalaureate in our schools.
New technical degrees at our universities.
And real, high-quality apprenticeships as well.
At the moment just one in 10 employers in England offers an apprenticeship.
There are six times fewer high quality apprenticeships than in Germany.
There has been lots of debate about tax avoidance in the last few weeks.
Nothing more symbolises the current government’s failing plan than seeing the tax gap - between what should be paid and the revenue received – widening, while the number of apprenticeships available for young people is falling.
We can do better.
And with our plan we will.
The public sector playing its part with thousands of apprenticeships.
Every firm that wins a major government contract required to deliver apprenticeships.
Every firm recruiting from outside the EU required to do the same.
With businesses having more control over the funding.
Rights and responsibilities throughout our society.
It is time to match the aspirations of our young people with the high quality apprenticeships they deserve.
So today I can announce: under the next Labour government, if you get the grades at 18 you will be guaranteed an apprenticeship.
That is what I mean by a better plan for young people.
A better plan for working people.
A better plan for Britain.
The next challenge is to support small businesses.
We know the jobs of tomorrow will come from a large number of small businesses, not simply a small number of large ones.
And it is by helping our small and medium sized businesses of today they can become the large businesses of tomorrow.
Our plan recognises that.
We will have a fairer tax system: keeping corporation tax the lowest in the G7, but with the first priority for us not further tax cuts for large businesses but helping smaller ones.
So we will cut and freeze business rates.
And we won’t just cut taxes for small businesses, but we will improve finance too.
Our plan recognizes that our banks are still not the servants of small business that they must be if they are to succeed and prosper.
So we will create a British Investment Bank to support new regional banks.
And we will have a market share cap so we can have more competition in business banking on the high street.
Now, the insight that we need to help every working person and every firm also applies to every part of Britain.
We are too unproductive as a country because we are too centralized as a country.
We know what makes for successful towns and cities.
Devolution to Scotland and Wales has been an economic success.
And it is time for devolution in England too.
Labour is the only party with a comprehensive, not a piecemeal, plan for devolution.
And a plan that meets the challenge in the scale of resources.
Devolving power and funding worth at least £30 billion over five years in employment services, transport, housing, skills and business support.
And our plan is about creating long-term sustainable prosperity for our country.
Some people believe that the old way of wealth creation is working for Britain.
I don’t agree.
Too often we have mistaken short-term, fast buck wealth creation, for long-term, sustainable prosperity.
Too often we’ve been a country which values hedge funds more than manufacturing.
That rewards speculation not long-term investment.
That privileges consuming today not investing for tomorrow.
Now, of course, government must get its own house in order.
We will make sure British businesses have the infrastructure they need to succeed.
An independent National Infrastructure Commission to stop long-term decisions being delayed and delayed.
But we also need to reform the environment in which business operates.
Tata’s takeover of JLR was good for business and good for Britain.
But too often takeovers lead simply to speculative activity, not in the long-term interests of the business or the country.
So we will reform the rules on takeovers so that long-term investors have a louder voice.
We will ensure executive pay is connected to performance by putting an everyday employee on the remuneration committees of firms.
And there is no more important long-term security that is required than our place in the European Union.
The real threat to prosperity after the general election would be to leave the European Union.
Under a Labour government, Britain will be a strong and proud member of a reformed EU.
So here are the foundations of our better economic plan:
Skills for all of our young people, not just a few.
Support for all businesses, not just the largest.
Thriving towns and cities in every part of Britain.
And the long-term view that our country needs.
All built on a commitment to cut the deficit every single year.
And balance the books in the next Parliament.
Not to go back to the 1930s.
With public spending shrunk as a share of national income to levels which would undermine our productivity and competitiveness as a country.
Under our plan, outside protected departments, spending will fall until the books are balanced.
But we will not undermine our economy by the decisions we make.
So the education budget will rise year on year, protected against inflation.
Because there is no more important investment in our country’s future.
There is a choice of two plans at this election.
This government’s failing plan, carrying on as we are claiming the economy is a success when it only works for a handful of people at the top.
Or a new plan, a better plan, that says this economy must succeed for working families if Britain as a whole is going to succeed.
A plan built on the truth that Britain cannot prosper for long as a country where a few do well, while most of the country falls behind.
We need a better plan to replace an economy where tens of billions are lost in tax avoidance with an economy where tens of thousands more of our young people are doing apprenticeships.
We need a better plan to help millions more businesses grow, succeed and create wealth.
We need a better plan to make us more productive as a country.
More inclusive in our prosperity.
With every person in Britain feeling they have a stake and a future in our economy.
Labour’s better plan for a better future.