James Ashton: Mayfield’s getting Britain to peddle its wares

Sir Charlie Mayfield has mixed feelings about his decision to sign up to Strava, an app that tracks cycling performance.

The detailed metrics of pace and distance make tough reading for the 50-year-old chairman of the John Lewis Partnership versus his hard-pedalling teenage son.

At least he can take solace in being able to measure marginal improvement each time he sets out.

Such is the challenge that faces UK Plc if it is to boost productivity.

We are puffing away in the slipstream of France, Germany and most other major economies, but the more information we have to boost the efficiency of the UK and its workforce — no matter how grim — the better.

Mayfield, who leads the Productivity Leadership Group, believes that the problem will last longer than Brexit and solving it is more important to the UK’s future than leaving the EU.

That’s why his team has devised an app that can benchmark companies’ performance against others in similar sectors and regions. It is being trialled by manufacturers and in hospitals.

All the talk about industrial strategy is how can the Government help raise the performance of a few sectors by a mile. But the notion of picking winners is as old hat as returning the Royal Mail to state hands.

Mayfield reasons that lifting thousands of firms up by an inch is probably more valuable — especially as two-thirds of UK workers are employed by firms with productivity below what is expected for their size in their sector. He well knows that retail is detail. But the mantra applies to all if the prize is higher wages, global competitiveness and prosperity.

To boost productivity, a makeover would help.

The average worker views the term with the same scepticism as yet another Bank of England forecast that pay-packet growth is on the way. At worst, productivity translates as job cuts, at best working harder for not a lot more money. Those wanting to see it in action should have lunch at Unipart’s super-efficient canteen near Oxford. Like Mayfield, it’s time for British industry to get on its bike.

Can the Mayor keep Crossrail 2 on track?

Can Crossrail 2 be saved? The mood music isn’t great, given the £15 billion ask from central government for the £30 billion north-south link could turbocharge transport connections between Leeds and Manchester many times over.

In these political times, the regions rule.

The Conservative manifesto is unlikely to offer further clues, given it is expected to be half the length of the last one and contain as few promises as possible. Yet the project is expected to form the centrepiece of Sadiq Khan’s transport strategy, due out in late June.