So, nationalisation - industrial policy with strong conditionalities - causes shortages, does it?

This would seem to be a problem:

Labour’s plan for a net-zero economy powered by wind turbines and electric vehicles (EVs) risks being thwarted by a huge drop in factory apprenticeships, British manufacturers have warned.

But clearly, this is a problem that could be solved by the government really taking a grip on apprenticeships. Instituting some industrial policy with strong conditionalities, say?

The number of new apprenticeships has fallen by up to two fifths since the introduction of the government’s “broken” levy system, new research shows.

There has been a 41 per cent decline in the number of apprenticeship starts for those under the age of 19 since the scheme came into force, according to analysis by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). For those aged between 19 and 24, participation has fallen by 36 per cent.

The levy, introduced in 2017, requires employers with an annual wage bill of more than £3 million to pay 0.5 per cent of payroll costs into a fund for training. It has come under fire from businesses such as AO World, Timpson, Tesco and the Co-op, which have argued that inflexibility, unsuitable courses and programme lengths are the biggest barriers.

As a result £4.4 billion raised by the levy had been kept by, or returned to, the Treasury over the past five years, rather than being spent on apprenticeships. It has also led to a decline in training opportunities and to the emergence of lower-quality schemes.

Ah. yes, the shortage of apprentices has been caused by the government getting a strong grip on the sector - the problem itself is industrial policy with strong conditionalities.

Such a pity we didn’t have any warning, some sort of heads up. After all, it’s not as if the Soviets nationalised farming and then everyone starved, is it?

Nationalisation causes shortages. Why didn’t we know?

Tim Worstall