THE UK economy remains unbalanced and is failing to meet people's needs or respect environmental limits, says the Green Party, commenting on the release of the latest GDP statistics.
The UK economy is larger than its pre-crisis peak for the first time since the 2008 crash (1).
Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, expressed concerns about the continued importance of Britain's financial sector, years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers:
“With the International Bank of Settlements, among many others, warning about the continued extreme fragility of the international financial sector of which the City of London is a notable risk-heavy and fraud-laden part, with an economy in which 20% of workers are on less than a living wage, millions working fewer hours than they'd like and households struggling to meet basic bills, there's no sign of real economic change.”
The Green Party argues that Britain's broken economic model needs to change, with a focus on rebuilding local economies and reining in multinational companies that are failing to pay the taxes needed to sustain the society that generates their profits.
Bennett said:
"Today it's important to re-state that we need to transform the economy so that it works for the common good, not for the good of the few, within the limits of our one planet.
"We need to bring manufacturing and food production back to Britain, restore strong local economies built on small businesses and cooperatives. That means forcing multinational companies to behave like decent corporate citizens - paying their way with tax and decent wages and conditions, and reining in our financial sector."
"And we need a massive cut in our use of the limited physical resources of this planet, along the lines of, but going much further, than that proposed this week by the Environmental Audit Committee report (2)."
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