The Impact of Brexit on the UK Economy – and the opportunities yet to be realised

New calculations published today by The Growth Commission in The Impact of Brexit on the UK Economy – and the opportunities yet to be realised set out the considerable benefits to the UK economy of using Brexit freedoms to enact pro-competitive regulations which diverge from the EU rule book.

The Commission’s economic models suggest that even taking into account the trade frictions in the area of goods trade with the EU, if the UK adopted pro-competitive regulations, it could see a boost to its GDP per capita of between 5.95% and 7.77%. Only if the EU’s regulation became more pro-competitive would it make sense to align to it. Alignment to EU regulation as it is would lead to a loss of between 3.12% and 3.9%. Given that this is precisely what the UK has done, we can attribute this loss to the failure of successive governments to take proper advantage of the freedoms they have been given.

The benefits of regulatory improvement therefore far outweigh the limited trade facilitation loss from leaving the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market – and this is before even considering the trade benefits of an independent trade policy in these calculations.

Read the report by clicking here.