Build Back Better is a vehicle for Boris Johnson’s ego

At school, university and in newspapers I was taught: “Avoid Alliteration. Always.”

That was the first rule so expressed in Frank L. Visco’s classic guide to making a good writer. Presumably, it is not a lesson this Prime Minister or this government recognise. Everywhere Boris Johnson and his ministers go they’re trotting out the three B’s: Build Back Better.

Oddly, it’s not a slogan that slips off the tongue so easily. It’s clumsy and awkward, lacking in force. Possibly, it’s the weak “back” stuck in the middle, while the word “better” also lacks power.

The phrase is not as impactful as intended. Try informing Johnson. Make no mistake, we’re going to hear an awful lot of it in the coming months. We have already.

Yes, but what does Build Back Better actually mean? If Johnson is asked this question he will wave his arms, ruffle his hair a bit more and come out with stock answers about “learning the lessons of this awful pandemic” and “levelling up” and “fixing the problems that have held back too many of our people for too long.”

They’re contained in his introduction to the government’s Build Back Better: our plan for growth policy document. There, he also talks about the collaboration between industry, science and government that led to the production of the vaccines, our talent for invention and how potential and dynamism across the whole country will be unleashed. Being out of the EU will enable us to break free and seize new opportunity. If pushed further on Build Back Better, he will say all this again, at speed with an extra twist of  “marvellous” and “brilliant”.

Also just published is another document of an altogether different tone. While it’s linked to Build Back Better this one is unlikely to be used as a primer for Johnsonian hyperbole and spiffing. This is the final report from the Industrial Strategy Council, or ISC.

Build Back Better replaces the existing industrial strategy introduced by Theresa May in 2017. As the body charged with monitoring that policy’s progress, the ISC is also disappearing.

The fact the watchdog is going will enable its views to be discounted, even dismissed completely. This is a pity. The ISC comprises business leaders and is chaired by the Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane. Even if they do not publicly applaud its contents, Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and the other Build Back Better booster brigade (see, it’s addictive once you start) would do well to privately study the organisation’s farewell missive.

The ISC is politely scornful of Build Back Better. They admit that implementing the old policy was a tall order but the new version is even tougher. “Having an ambitious strategy spanning a wide array of policy areas, sectors and government departments is a good thing. But all good strategies require prioritisation too.” The previous strategy contained 142 policy measures and, says the ISC “spread itself too thinly.” Build Back Better, they point out, exceeds that number with 180. “That begs questions about the scope and scale, and hence likely success, of this plan.” Greater prioritisation is called for.

Build Back Better makes great play about the public and private sectors working together. Not enough, says the ISC, and certainly not at the local level. “Historically, partnerships between the public and private sectors have been a key driver of innovation, productivity, and wealth-creation.” They prefer to call it “co-creation” rather than working together. “A particular strength of the 2017 Industrial Strategy were the elements of ‘co-creation’. One example was Local Industrial Strategies, with local areas working in partnership with government.” A second was sector deals such as vaccine development. “The principle of co-creation is under-emphasised” in Build Back Better. “Active engagement and co-creation, with business and local actors, is key to ensuring the success” of the new strategy.

The localisation theme rears its head again in relation to “levelling up” – recognised and welcomed by the ISC as this government’s “most important mission”.

Then comes the hammer. “But the proposed approach appears over-reliant on infrastructure spending and the continued use of centrally controlled funding pots thinly spread across a range of initiatives. Evidence, historical and international, suggests this is unlikely to be a recipe for success. Sustained local growth needs to be rooted in local strategies, covering not only infrastructure but skills, sectors, education and culture. These strategies need to be locally designed and focussed. There also needs to be investment in the local capacity and capability to then implement these strategies.”

A “comprehensive reorientation” of the government’s approach to “levelling up” is required. Ouch.

There is a plea, possibly naturally, for the creation of a similar body to the ISC. The council “welcomes the planned focus on delivery, with senior cross-Whitehall governance and regular reporting on progress. But best practice internationally, and indeed domestically in other areas of policy, calls for arms-length, independent and rigorous oversight and evaluation of delivery and success. The ISC believes the government should set up an independent body, ideally in statute, tasked with providing impartial and expert evaluation” on the progress of Build Back Better.

None of this will sit happily with Johnson. He will maintain it is phooey, that by aiming high you achieve highly; that central government is expert; and there is no need for yet another scrutinising body.

There is another way of looking at it, which is: that the government’s approach is very Johnson in wanting to make a lot of noise; he wants to keep the glory, as he imagines it, for himself and not share with local bodies; and he will not have his homework marked by outsiders and so will be able, come what may, to award himself high marks.

None of this is fresh. At school, university and in newspapers, Johnson did not play by the rules either. They included, presumably: “Avoid Alliteration. Always.”

He does what he wants and by the way, it’s five B’s not three. Boris Builds Britain Back Better.