A key reason for a lack of investment in the UK is excessive regulation and planning requirements, according to Stian Westlake, chair of the Economic and Social Research Council. “We make things much harder for ourselves.”
France is also much better at investing in infrastructure, he adds. “Leeds, for example, is the biggest city in Europe without a metro system. If you go to France, really small towns have trams, rail systems and metros. Their cost per mile to build these systems is far, far less than in the UK.”
Increased investment in France’s “second-tier” cities compared to the UK’s helps them boost their productivity and lift the national average, says Dr Issam Samiri of NIESR. “The UK is geographically concentrated relative to France and other countries. The obvious question here is why isn’t Birmingham as productive as Lyon, for example?”
People in France tend to live closer to the office and have shorter commutes than in Britain, in part because of housing costs and planning rules.
Westlake says: “If you look at places like Oxford and Cambridge, you have some of the most brilliant innovators and scientists in the world. But they are very tightly restricted by the green belt system [which prevents urban sprawl], so they can’t build as much housing, which makes it more expensive. This means it is harder for employers to set up there, and harder for people to live there.”
Anacleto says that in Paris, his colleagues lived close to the office. “You feel like you’re working in your own neighbourhood. You don’t lose hours on the commute, and you spend more time in the office.”
‘People in France learn to work’
Jane* is British but has worked in high-profile French firms for more than 20 years. “In France, you have big engineering and business schools, which are really geared towards getting you into a job. In English universities, it’s more intellectual work; in France it’s much more practical,” she says, poking more holes in the view that the French are work-shy.
Top firms prefer to recruit management staff from the country’s “grandes ecoles”, highly specialised universities offering training in engineering, business, economics and technology. Competition for places at these specialised schools is notoriously fierce.
“At the top end of management, people have typically had incredible educations from the grandes ecoles,” adds Jane. “These are where young people learn to work, and it is what makes them so skilled in their jobs.”
Could Labour’s work reforms improve our productivity?
The Government’s new Employment Rights Bill would bring British workers’ rights far closer to France. In 2017, French president Emmanuel Macron enshrined the “right to switch off” in a law similar to that being considered by Parliament, banning employers from sending their workers emails outside of working hours. It is also illegal to fire and rehire workers across the Channel.
Some have been heavily critical of the reforms, concerned that it could lead to a knock on investment, and therefore productivity. Over half of bosses surveyed by the Institute of Directors said they were “less likely to hire” as a result of the upcoming changes.