Call to not chance to build back better from the pandemic slip away

Mr Danker was a special advisor to the Treasury during the Financial Crisis of 2008-09, a period in which the world economy came perilously close to collapse and kickstarted a decade of austerity measures.

Mr Danker said that discussions of using the downturn as a chance to enact meaningful reforms of the UK economy were discussed but never acted upon, something he hoped would not be repeated.

He said: “I remember very clearly that, although there were conversations equivalent to ‘build back better conversations’, managing the crisis was absorbing and exhausting.

“I think it is definitely believable and plausible that the same thing happens again, that managing the crisis that the Government is having to manage, is exhausting and prevents them from raising their hands to think ambitiously about the coming decade.

“But I think they have made a good start.

“If you read the Chancellor’s Build Back Better Plan for Growth I think he has recognised that risk and tried to lay down the framework for big bets around levelling up and decarbonisation.

“I think it is the responsibility of the CBI to sustain that direction of travel into a real plan.”