Is low productivity built-in to UK small businesses? One benefit claimed for Brexit was forcing UK business to address its woeful productivity.  Particularly in the SME sector our productivity is far worse than that of our competitors and there is a school of thought that says ready access to cheap labour contributed to this (although opinions vary of course – these are economists. In particular, countries such as France and Germany have had the same access to labour without it depressing their productivity in the same way). Be that as it may, many UK businesses have faced labour shortages and wage increases.  The news bulletins run interviews with under-pressure business owners, most of them saying: I cannot get the staff so I am limiting capacity and turnover I have had to raise wages to get or keep people and I can’t pass that on in prices I am paying higher wages but that doesn’t translate into more productivity The gist of these opinions (from albeit a tiny and edited sam...