Charlie Elphicke MP: Turbocharging growth

Charlie Elphicke is MP for Dover.

In May 2010 the coalition Government came to office with the public finances shot through and the country in bleak recession. Public and private debt was unsustainable and economic growth had been built on debt rather than more solid foundations for almost a decade.

The first priority of the Chancellor has, rightly, been to stabilise the public finances. With a credible stabilisation plan now in place, we need to think harder about how we can make Britain grow faster. The deficit reduction plan has maintained Britain's credit rating and kept interest rates low. It has also seen Britain well placed to weather the economic storms now ravaging Europe.  Stabilisation is vital to the now. It is important to ensure our economy is based on true growth rather than debt. Yet we need to move as fast as possible to see a faster economic growth rate for our future generations in a World moving East.

This series of articles looks at measures to help our country grow faster. None of us pretend we have all the answers. We do not look at every area. It is intended as a contribution of ideas to the growth debate. Many of the building blocks are already in place - enterprise zones, labour market reform, regional growth funds and LEPs to name but a few. Others are being put in place - importantly the welfare reforms that will make work pay and encourage more employment. The Coalition deserves credit for its economic activism to date.

Much has been done - yet there is always more to do. A decade of economic failure takes more than 18 short months to turn around. The proposals in this series aim to encourage growth with lower business taxation, a more radical reform of our banking system, further benefit reforms to encourage work, infrastructure investment incentives, international trade partnerships to boost exports and the reform of EU laws that stand in the way of Britain's future growth story.

Some of these proposals may be considered radical – the case made for substantial changes in the banking system are not for the faint hearted. While repatriating powers from the EU will not be straightforward. Yet the scale of the challenge is such that more far reaching policy responses should be considered if we are to succeed in boosting economic growth, jobs and money over the next few years.

The first in the series comes from Karen Bradley MP: Cut the 50p rate, cut corporation tax, cut capital gains