Prime Ministers Office 10 Downing Street
PM Rishi Sunaks Speech to CBI conference
Tony, let me start by saying thank you to you and your team.
The CBI is a valued institution in this country
and a powerful voice for business.
And let me thank all of you
Because I know things are tough right now.
You rightly want to know what you can expect from me.
You saw what mattered to me when I was Chancellor, with policies like furlough.
Acting with empathy. In the national interest.
Above all, being bold, decisive, and radical.
Now let me tell you what I want to do as Prime Minister.
I said on the steps of Downing Street that I would put stability and confidence at the heart of this governments agenda.
And last week we did that
with a plan to grip inflation and balance the books.
I said I would bring fairness and compassion to help the most vulnerable.
And weve done that too
not just with record increases in pensions and welfare
.and help for peoples energy bills
but by controlling inflation.
Because the best way to help people
is by stopping mortgages, rents, and food prices from spiralling out of control.
Re-establishing stability is the critical first step.
But theres so much more we need to do.
Im not just here to solve problems.
I want to build a better country.
Where we get inflation down and grow the economy.
Where we cut NHS waiting times and improve the quality of care.
Where we invest more in schools and give every child a world-class education.
And critical to achieving all this
.is innovation.
Thats my theme today.
And a defining focus of my government.
Why innovation matters
I sometimes worry that when people hear the word innovation, all they think of are the latest gadgets a smarter watch, better tv, or faster car.
But to me, innovation is much more about new ideas, new ways of doing things that drive economic and social progress.
The product of creativity and ingenuity
and what Roosevelt called bold, persistent experimentation.
I want to lead a country where that mindset and that culture of innovation
permeates every aspect of what we do.
Where its at the heart of our economic policy
and at the heart of our vision for public services.
The question is how do we do that?
First, we need to harness innovation to drive economic growth.
Second, we need to embed innovation in our public services - especially our NHS.
Third, we need to teach people the skills to become great innovators.
Harnessing Innovation to drive economic growth
First, growth.
Tony, youve rightly challenged us to be more ambitious for growth.
Well, theres one factor above all that drives growth.
Over the last 50 years, innovation was responsible for around half of the UKs productivity increases.
But the rate of increase has slowed significantly since the financial crisis.
This difference explains almost all our productivity gap with the United States.
How do we fire up the innovation engine?
We believe that the very act of creativity and exploration is itself a reward
so it starts with government investment in basic science and research.
In a challenging time, when we are making difficult decisions on public spending
in last weeks autumn statement, we protected the budget for research and development.
20bn almost a fifth of our entire capital budget, the highest level of R&D this country has ever seen.
And were investing in high-risk, high-reward research with the new Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
But more important than what government does is what you do.
Its private sector innovations that really drive growth.
Youd expect me to say that, Im a Conservative but its true.
Thats why the Autumn Statement cut taxes to encourage larger companies to do more research and development.
Its why were going to allow businesses to claim R&D tax relief on pure maths and cloud computing.
And its why were absolutely committed to using our new Brexit freedoms
to create the most pro-innovation regulatory environment in the world
in sectors like life sciences, financial services, AI and data.
But any credible strategy also needs to support fast growing businesses
those firms disproportionately responsible for our future growth.
Turning million-pound businesses into billion-pound businesses and turning billion-pound businesses into ten-billion-pound companies
will create good well paying jobs for the British people.
But too often, those firms cant access the finance they need.
Thats why were radically reforming the regulation of our insurance and pensions sectors, as well as our listings rules
to release a flood of new funding for exciting, innovative businesses.
And well need to go further.
But this isnt just about what large businesses and financial markets can do.
We want to support small businesses to innovate, too.
On every high street, in every market town, every day we rely on brilliant local businesses from the greengrocer to the dry cleaner to the local plumber.
We should be ambitious for their future too.
The real prize is supporting them to innovate.
And thats exactly what were doing with new initiatives like Help to Grow and Made Smarter.
So make no mistake our most pressing task when it comes to growth is stability and controlling inflation.
But that will never be the limit of our ambition.
The more we innovate, the more well grow and we have a plan for both.
An innovation culture in our public services
Second, we also need to create a culture of innovation in our public services.
Now I grew up in an NHS family.
Its in my blood.
And as your Prime Minister, I will always protect an NHS free at the point of use.
And thats why, in a budget where we had to make savings overall.
we didnt cut the funding for health and social care.
we increased it.
By 8 billion.
So let no-one ever doubt our commitment to the brilliant men and women who work in our NHS.
But our ambition for our countrys most important public service cannot be measured solely by the money we spend
but by the quality of care every patient receives.
We all want it to be easier for people to see their family GP.
We dont want our loved ones waiting so long for ambulances
or for the operations they need.
But better care requires innovation.
Now In part that means new drugs and new technologies.
And this country should be proud of how we are leading the way.
Not just with that extraordinary Covid vaccine.
But with robots assisting surgery
.doctors being trained with Virtual Reality headsets
and drones transporting prescription medicines to patients in remote locations.
Medical technologies like these are only the most visible form of innovation.
But we also need to radically innovate in how we do things.
Thats how we will really improve the quality and speed of care and make the money we invest in the NHS go further.
To do that, were opening Community Diagnostic Centres to deliver millions more tests, checks and scans
.close to home and without having to arrange multiple appointments.
And our new elective surgical hubs will offer hundreds of thousands of patients
quicker access to the most common procedures.
But we need to go further still.
We want to give patients genuine choice about where and when to access care.
And those choices need to be informed by radical transparency about the performance of our healthcare system.
Were also making sure the NHS has the workforce it needs for the future
with the right numbers of doctors and nurses in the right places
as well as thinking creatively about what new roles and capabilities we need
in the healthcare workforce of the future.
When it comes to the NHS, we all share the same ambition
to give everybody in the country the best possible care, free at the point of use.
But to deliver it, we need to be bold and radical in challenging conventional wisdom.
And thats what well do.
Giving the people the skills to become great innovators
Now, third, there can be no innovation unless people have the skills to innovate.
That starts with our schools.
So last week we announced an extra 2bn in each of the next two years.
But funding is not enough.
There is no responsibility as Prime Minister that I feel more deeply, than how we develop a truly world-class education system
giving every child in our country the best chance in life and preparing them to enter into a rapidly changing world.
The Times were right to challenge us about what that looks like.
And we are asking ourselves radical searching, questions.
About the curriculum because young people need to enter the modern economy equipped with