Last week the Office for National Statistics came up with its latest estimates on public sector productivity, which showed that overall it was 8.4 per cent lower than at the end of 2019, and in the NHS productivity was 18.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
It's true that she has asked civil servants to find 5 per cent efficiency savings as part of the review of their spending plans, but what is needed is a change of mindset, not another version of what has failed before.
Then, under the successive Conservative-led governments, productivity gradually recovered, so that by 2019 it was not only above the 2010 level but was 4 per cent higher than it had been in 1997.
Growth has stalled since Labour came to power and the Office for Budget Responsibility has almost certainly had to cut its growth forecasts for the months ahead.
UK firms are criticised for being less efficient than their EU or US counterparts, but their productivity is 20 per cent higher than it was in 1997.
