CBI chief: Britain is paying a ‘Brexit tax’
CBI chief says distraction is damaging our growth She warns the world won’t wait for UK’s deal Economy’s most vital year in a generation
CAROLYN Fairbairn is cool, crisp and calm. She needs to be. It would be challenging enough to be the first female director general of the CBI, which was, until her arrival in late 2015, a very male bastion. But she is at the helm at one of the most turbulent points in the organisation’s 50-year history.
Previously a high-achieving but low profile businesswoman, her job at the CBI has put her on the front line of the debate over Brexit.
She has been a target for some Leavers who have accused her of scaremongering over the UK economy and of Remoaner tendencies.
If she is remotely perturbed, then she isn’t letting it show, but instead is trying to lift the debate to a higher level – one where facts, not anger and recrimination, hold sway.
This year, she says, is ‘the most important year for the UK economy for a generation’.
‘This needs to be a year where evidence overcomes emotion and ideology. The world won’t wait for Britain while we sort out Brexit,’ she says.
The CBI argued Britain should remain in the EU after a poll of its members showed four out of five believed that was best for their business. But Fairbairn insists she has no plot to sabotage Brexit.
‘We are committed to making it a success. Not to have a second referendum, not to reverse it.’ But barrier-free trade with the EU, she says, ‘has been really good for jobs so anything that undoes that is a risk.’
‘Another risk is that we get Brexit wrong, we stay tribal when what we need now is unity. We need to think about practicalities. There are 150,000 exporters that only export to the EU and have no systems in place to manage red tape at borders. They have no means of filling a form in.
‘Why did no one draw attention to that sort of thing before the referendum? Well, the campaigns weren’t very good, on either side, and it was very short.’
Couldn’t UK exporters j ust broaden their horizons? ‘ Yes – China, for example, is a really attractive market, and there are others, but the share of our exports to Germany alone is 11 percent. Let’s just get the facts in there.’
Fairbairn is big on facts and evidence, stressing time and again the need for decisions to be made on the basis of dispassionate research, not tribalism or prejudice.
Isn’t the problem, though, that in the current climate, few want to listen to facts, and even fewer want to give a hearing to the business lobby? ‘I think the voice of business can be effective behind the scenes,’ she says.
She counters criticism that the CBI has ‘talked down’ the UK econo my a nd been unnecessarily gloomy about our prospects, pointing out that, ‘We haven’t actually done Brexit yet.’ And, she says, the distraction of Brexit means we are not doing anywhere near as well as we should be.
The CBI is forecasting growth of 1.5 per cent for the UK this year, compared with 2.5 per cent for the US, 1.8 per cent in the Eurozone and 3.7 per cent for t h e wo r l d as a whole.
‘ The UK should be doing a lot bett e r, given how strongly the world economy i s performing. There is a l o s t o pport uni t y and it is Brexit – it i s a Br e x i t tax almost.’
Now 57, Fairbairn lives in Winchester with her husband Peter Chittick, a co-founder of the Hotel du Vin chain, and has three children – two daughters aged 23 and 21 and a son of 18.
Her schedule starts with an alarm going off at 5.30am to catch the 6.50am train to arrive at the office before 9am. In a typical week, she schleps to two evening engagements. One of her hobby-horses is to cut down the number of ‘boozy corporate dinners’ that clutter executives’ diaries, in favour of early evening events.
She believes many women miss out on networking opportunities because they don’t like alcoholfuelled functions – and often find it hard to attend because of childcare commitments. Corporate entertaining is also frequently orientated towards men, she says.
‘We have done a lot at the CBI to move away from the dinner model. And sport is not always the most inclusive thing. Some women love it but entertaining doesn’t always have to be the rugby.’
Such barriers have not held her back. She achieved a double first in economics from Cambridge and early in her career worked as an economist at the World Bank. Other roles included management consultancy at McKinsey and a stint at BBC Worldwide followed by a senior job at ITV. More recently she served as a director of Lloyds Bank.
In the early 1990s, she was an adviser t o No 10’s policy unit under John Major ’s g o v e r n - ment – though she has not been a member of a political party since.
Fairbairn claims to have ‘very good engagement’ with the Labour leadership over Brexit, but, she adds with a sigh in her voice, the party’s threat to nationalise utilities is a major concern.
‘We have been very open in saying investors would run for the hills if that comes in.’ Doesn’t business bear a heavy responsibility for the appeal of Corbynism, with poor deals for consumers and outsized executive pay?
‘There is a lot of reflection business needs to do about its role in society. Capitalism is working but not well enough, and not for enough people. So s ome people feel left out and there is anger.’
The way to deal with that, she says, i s by i mproving productivity, which means improving skills. ‘We need to help people gain the skills they need because as many as 35 per cent of current jobs won’t exist in ten years’ time. Jobs are being automated.
‘We should not be scared of robots because they can take over the boring tasks so people can take more interesting and highly paid work. But there will be a rough transition for some, and we have to be very honest about that.’
There is a danger, Fairbairn says, that the sheer amount of work involved in Brexit will push these issues into the long grass.
‘If Brexit crowds everything else out it will be a disaster. Last year was the year of the debate, this year is the year of the decisions and it isn’t just about how we will fashion Brexit.
‘We need to leave behind the anger. We only have a finite time to shape our economy for the future and if we don’t pull together, we face profound uncertainty.
‘Let’s take the ideological steam out of Brexit and for goodness sake get our act together.’
Some women do love sport... but entertaining doesn’t always have to be at the rugby
We need to leave behind the anger... we only have a finite time to shape our economy