The investment imperative: what strategies are needed to fund competition, defence & sustainability?

This panel discussion was part of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy Annual Conference 2025.

Both Europe and the UK share common challenges, such as weak productivity growth, and sliding competitiveness, together with broader concerns such as climate change and weak defence spending in a worsening geopolitical environment. For all of these issues, greater investment has been identified as a fundamental tool. Several questions remain unanswered however: what share of the investment gap can credibly be filled by the public sector? Are flanking reforms needed to ensure money is well spent, and to crowd in private investment? How does this interact with fiscal rules, when the world is reaching all-time-high public debt levels?

Guest speakers: 

• Prof Diane Coyle, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
• Prof Flavio Toxvaerd, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
• Prof Guntram Wolff, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Bruegel
• Chair: Dr Alessio Terzi, Department of Politics & International Studies, University of Cambridge

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