SOCIAL PROGRESS STAGNANT AS GDP SOARS

GDP ALTERNATIVE SHOWS BROWN'S BUDGET WILL NOT GUARANTEE QUALITY OF LIFE OR SUSTAINABILITY

A new measure of the state of Britain's economy, MDP or Measure of Domestic Progress, shows that social progress in Britain has become increasingly decoupled from economic growth over the last 50 years and has stalled completely in the last three decades, never regaining its 1976 peak.

The report, "Chasing Progress", released by nef ahead of the Chancellor's budget announcement, shows that the growth in consumption represented by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not give a true picture of the progress of the nation and is failing to deliver on the Government's own sustainable development targets.

The report has received coverage across the UK's national and regional papers, including the Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Express, The Daily Star, The Daily Record, The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard and UK Metro, as well as national and regional radio and television coverage.

The MDP reflects progress in Britons' quality of life and progress towards a sustainable economy by factoring in the social and environmental costs of economic growth, and benefits of unpaid work such as household labour, that are excluded from GDP. 

The relentless pursuit of GDP growth has been the defining characteristic of Western politics over the last 50 years. The report exposes the comfortable assumption that economic growth is a good indicator of human progress and well-being as a myth. Economic growth is leading to unacceptable environmental risks, failing to guarantee social progress and doesn't make us any happier.

The MDP bears a much closer resemblance to measures of life satisfaction - which have not risen for 30 years - than GDP does.

- GDP has soared in the last 50 years, where MDP has struggled to rise at all

- The divergence is especially stark over the last 30 years: GDP increased 80 per cent, but MDP fell sharply in the 1980s and has never regained its 1976 peak

- Despite improvements in air and water quality, environmental costs have risen 300 per cent in the last half-century

- Social costs have increased 600 per cent, with a 13-fold increase in the costs of crime and a four-fold increase in the costs of family breakdown

- The Labour Government has failed to curb the rise in social inequality engendered by the Tories' rule

- Although MDP growth rallied during the last decade, at several points outstripping GDP growth, its average growth rate over the last 50 years is barely half that of GDP

Despite major increases in income and a three-fold rise in consumption over the last 50 years, the costs and risks of environmental degradation, rising inequality, social breakdown and the diseases of affluence now threatening advances in life expectancy mean that real progress towards a sustainable society is lagging dangerously behind.

"Tinkering with taxes is no way to secure our children's future,' said Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and author of the report. 'Brown's real challenge is to provide us with a credible politics of sustainability.'

"The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has never enjoyed the level of economic prosperity in the West, is seeking to replace GDP with Gross National Happiness (GNH)," said Hetan Shah, Director of nef's Well-being programme. "We should follow their lead by going back to basics and asking ourselves what exactly it is we are trying to maximise."

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	Publications Chasing Progress: Beyond measuring economic growth